Yes, it’s time for the Greatest Show in the Universe, which is Brazilian Carnival! Come over and shake your hips, and get involved in the incredible Carnival atmosphere that grips the country at this time of year. This year, the Greatest Show in the Universe runs from 4 March to 8 March. To find out when Carnival is in any given year, it ends the day before Ash Wednesday, having started on the Friday before.

Brazilian Carnival is something spectacular that gets better every year, and of course the best thing to do is actually participate in the parade to feel the spirit of the occasion. You can choose either the Rio de Janeiro Carnival, which is more luxurious, or the São Paulo Carnival, which is more authentic. Just choose one of the samba schools and learn their song, then get that flight and take to the Sambodrome. If you are energetic, you can even do it all: two days samba’ing in São Paulo on Friday and Saturday, then whisk down to Rio for the parades on Sunday and Monday. The trip to Rio takes 6 hours by bus, but you can get there by air in 1 hour. If you go by car, you can stop for lunch halfway in Lorena.

In general, each samba school has around 4,000 people and has its parade opened by an Opening Troupe (comissão de frente) and the Opening Float (abre-alas). Each school has a theme (enredo) which must be transmitted by the different sections (alas) of the school, the floats (carros alegóricos), costumes (fantasias) and other ornaments (alegorias e adereços); there is also the samba theme (samba-enredo) which is produced by the drummers (bateria) and sung by a lead singer (puxador). One highlight is the section of women in typical Bahian garb (Ala das Baianas), and then there is the Head Dancer and Standard Bearer (mestre-sala e porta-bandeira). Atop the floats are famous people (destaques), these usually being models, politicians, Globo soap opera actors and former participants of Big Brother Brazil (BBB). Strict rules govern timing, size of floats, constitution of the parade and the like. The results come out on Ash Wednesday, often amid scuffles between people from different schools, then everything calms down as people start preparing for next year.

Are you thinking of visiting Brazil for the carnival? If you want to, but are worried about the language barrier, just ask us about our interpreting services.

PAUL W DIXON