Carnivals by Zuzana Valkova

As a small child I loved all the carnivals and masquerades. It was so exciting. Later I found that it's not only a "party thing", but it has a long tradition in almost whole Europe and America. Carnival is a festival season. It's happening usually during the February, sometimes during the March. First day of the Carnival is 12 days after the Christmas, on January 6, and the last one is called Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday. This is the day before Ash Wednesday. Its 47 days before Eastern. During the carnival people are celebrating, dancing and drinking, there are parades on the streets. Special balls are prepared, lots of people are wearing masks and costumes. I already said that carnivals are traditions. Because before Eastern there are 40 days of Lent, people wanted to use this opportunity and celebrate the last days before it. They had to prepare for the next 40 days without meat and alcohol. But it was like this in the past. Nowadays, most of the people don't care about traditions like Lent, but they still strongly care about the carnivals and parades. Most famous carnival in Europe is the Venice carnival in Italy. Almost everyone in this magic historical city is dressed in costumes or at least in a mask and celebrates. Many tourists from abroad come to Venice only because of this. In America is the most famous carnival in Rio de Janeiro. Main parts of this carnival are big parades with samba dance schools and half naked dancers. Almost every country has different traditions, but the reason is the same everywhere.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20080201/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_celebrity_gras;_ylt=Aj9dhWkdXSuz1eD22PmmPe.s0NUE

by Zuzana Valkova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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