After two long years, an influx of dancers and drummers reclaimed the iconic beach town’s “Sambadrome,” its dedicated Carnival parade venue, which was converted into a drive-thru vaccination center at the height of the health crisis.
The all-night parade on Friday and Saturday nights by the city’s top samba schools is the first since February 2020, marking a turning point for hard-hit Brazil, where COVID-19 has claimed over 660,000 lives , second only to the United States.
Anna said, “I’m so happy. I think a lot of people are going to cry when the parade starts, including me.” vieraA 48-year-old geography teacher dressed in a huge, glittering white dress waited for her turn to parade for the Imperatridge samba school.
“Carnival is life. You can see the joy on people’s faces after two years of being in the house and remembering it,” Vieira, who has been parading for 20 years, told AFP.
But the festivities took a tragic turn even before the start of the festivities, when an 11-year-old girl was killed and injured in a horrific boat accident during a low-level samba school parade competition on Wednesday night, one of the main events. Preview.
City officials said he was taken to hospital, but died on Friday.
Tragedy also affected Rio’s Carnival in 2017, when two freak float accidents killed one person and injured dozens.
There were fears that the carnival party would be scrapped again in 2022, with Rio officials canceling it last year, then postponing it this year by two months from the traditional dates – just before the Catholic season of Lent – Omicron Edition for fear of .
But with more than 75 percent of the South American country’s 213 million people now fully vaccinated, the average weekly Covid-19 death toll has jumped from more than 3,000 a year ago to nearly 100 now – the show goes on. allows for.
All participants expected each night and 75,000 attendees are required to present proof of vaccination.
City officials have not authorized large-scale carnival street parties as “blocos”, but many smaller ones are still being held.
The pandemic left Brazilians full of “saudades” – Portuguese for “longing” – for Carnival, a free-for-all dancing, singing and partying in close quarters that is essentially the opposite of social distancing.
“I couldn’t sleep last night, I was so excited,” said rita marcellinowho was dancing samba in an elaborate African dress as she prepared for the parade.
“I was waking up every two minutes,” said the 62-year-old domestic worker, who lost her job and “many” friends and family members to the pandemic.
The competition has 60 to 70 minutes to tell a story in music and dance at each samba school, which is assessed by a jury on nine criteria.
The reigning champion, Viradouro, chose Rio’s epic 1919 carnival as his theme – the first one celebrated since the devastation of another pandemic, the Spanish Flu.
“No sadness can withstand so much joy,” says their samba theme song.
With other schools choosing subjects charged with social messages, Brazil faced divisive elections in October, hoping to have a far-right president. Jair Bolsonaro against ex-left leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva,
Of the 12 schools, eight chose topics related to racism or Afro-Brazilian history, issues loaded in a country where the current president has faced frequent accusations of racism.
His samba songs include his treatment of the Black Lives Matter protest; A tribute to the two “oryx” or gods of Afro-Brazilian religion; and a celebration of black samba singers.
Carnival should also provide some much-needed relief to an economy battered by the pandemic.
Beyond the affair of floats, feathers and barely covered meat, Carnival is big business, moving some four billion ($800 million) and creating at least 45,000 jobs, according to official figures.
The participants were just happy that the party was back.
“We have two years in the world so dark,” said Latino Suarez45, who traveled for the parade from So Paulo.
“Brazil without Carnival is not Brazil. It is part of who we are.”