The commemoration of the Carnival is subordinate, in Christian countries, to the date of Easter. Christianity, from its origins, started to articulate the days of the year to a liturgical calendar, this is, to a framework of special dates that is oriented according to the belief in the Redeeming Incarnation of Christ. Easter is considered the most important date, as it is considered the day of Resurrection. O CouncilinNicaea (325 d. Ç.) determined that Easter day would be celebrated on every Sunday following the first full moon after the equinox of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, which can therefore occur between the 22nd of March and the 25th of April.
The period of preparation for the Easter event is known, within liturgical tradition, as Lent — symbolizing the forty days that Christ spent in the desert — and occurs between the Wednesdayinashes it's the Sundayinbranches (one week before Easter). THE TuesdayinCarnival it always occurs before Ash Wednesday, therefore 47 days before Easter.
This adjustment of the date of carnival to the date of Easter also reveals the care that the early Christian Church took to impose itself on the pagan festivals of the Greco-Roman civilization. The term Carnival comes from the Latin carnis levale, which means “abandonment of the flesh”, deprivation of the pleasures of the flesh, since the time of Lent aims at exactly this type of behavior. In the period around the spring equinox, both in Greece and in Rome, there was the cult of Dionysus(Spleen, for the Romans), god of wine and pleasure. These parties nurtured sexual rites, such as orgies and bacchanals, washed down with drink to honor the aforementioned god (Learn more about Carnival in Antiquity).
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As Europe was formed over the centuries that made up the period of the Middle Ages, Carnival was transformed into a party with increasingly particular characteristics. Also in the medieval period, Carnival became an allegory of the inversion of social roles, “the rich person becomes the poor”, “the man becomes a woman”, “the nobleman becomes a commoner”, and vice versa. For more information, see this text: History of Carnival and its origins.
It was through Portuguese colonization that the Carnival arrived in Brazil. But in the Brazilian case, the Carnival parties took on very peculiar features according to the region of the country. In the Northeast, especially Pernambuco and Bahia, the street blocks and the mixture of regional rhythms are evident. In Rio de Janeiro, the tradition of samba, schools and organized blocks sets the tone for the parties.
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
FERNANDES, Claudio. "Carnival"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/datas-comemorativas/carnaval-1.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
