Rio de Janeiro which is the second largest city in Brazil is an immensely popular tourist destination. When one thinks of Rio one can’t help but think of its more than fifty gorgeous beaches of which Ipanema and Copacabana are perhaps the most famous. Hence any thoughts of Rio immediately conjure up images of bronzed bodies, refreshing caparinhias, the thumping beats of bossa nova music and last but not the least the world’s greatest party which takes the form of the annual Rio Carnival.
The Rio Carnival is a fabulous four day festival of music and dance which is typically held forty days before the festival of Easter during the months of January/ February every year. This raucous festival is known to attract 500,000 visitors every year and if you haven’t yet made to Rio for Carnival then perhaps you should include this trip on your own personal bucket list of 100 things to do before you die.
If you are already tempted and are making plans and are suddenly scouring the internet for fares, you might want to consider looking for a cheap business class airfare to Rio de Janeiro. The travel time to Rio from various cities in North America and even Europe extends over ten hours and when faced with such a journey it makes sense to consider a discount business class fare to Rio de Janeiro.
Business class travel is not entirely unaffordable for there are times when airlines themselves offer discount business class airfares which are quite attractive and loaded with all the perks of regular business class though you could also consider approaching an airfares consolidator for the cheapest business class ticket to Rio de Janeiro. These airfares consolidators almost always have a wide array of cheap business class tickets to several worldwide destinations that they procure from the airlines themselves due to the consolidator contracts that they have with them.
Carnival always commences on a Saturday and terminates on a day known as ‘Fat Tuesday’. This sumptuous celebration is almost immediately followed by the Catholic period of austerity and abstinence known as ‘Lent’ which commences from Ash Wednesday.
The Rio Carnival is a fabulous four day festival of music and dance which is typically held forty days before the festival of Easter during the months of January/ February every year. This raucous festival is known to attract 500,000 visitors every year and if you haven’t yet made to Rio for Carnival then perhaps you should include this trip on your own personal bucket list of 100 things to do before you die.
If you are already tempted and are making plans and are suddenly scouring the internet for fares, you might want to consider looking for a cheap business class airfare to Rio de Janeiro. The travel time to Rio from various cities in North America and even Europe extends over ten hours and when faced with such a journey it makes sense to consider a discount business class fare to Rio de Janeiro.
Business class travel is not entirely unaffordable for there are times when airlines themselves offer discount business class airfares which are quite attractive and loaded with all the perks of regular business class though you could also consider approaching an airfares consolidator for the cheapest business class ticket to Rio de Janeiro. These airfares consolidators almost always have a wide array of cheap business class tickets to several worldwide destinations that they procure from the airlines themselves due to the consolidator contracts that they have with them.
Carnival always commences on a Saturday and terminates on a day known as ‘Fat Tuesday’. This sumptuous celebration is almost immediately followed by the Catholic period of austerity and abstinence known as ‘Lent’ which commences from Ash Wednesday.
The Portuguese colonists brought the practice of celebrating carnival to Brazil in 1850. The celebration of Carnival until then was inherently a European affair which had been in existence since the time of the ancient Romans and Greeks who celebrated the advent of spring with many festivities that gave rise to the carnival.
The Portuguese celebration of carnival in Rio enticed the city’s native African and Amerindian people and soon the event came to be celebrated with cross-dressing events, street parades, masquerades and more. The carnival was considered to be a time when social boundaries and roles were reversed or even obliterated. The Rio Carnival was at first very European in its ethos but as the African population of Rio took carnival to its heart, the entire genteel character of Carnival changed as it came to incorporate the Samba which is the vigorous musical dance form which hails from Brazilian state of Bahia. Since then the Samba parades have been the biggest attractions at the Rio Carnival only now the Samba parades have moved to a specially built Sambodromo away from the streets.
The Sambodromo which is located in downtown Rio and can accommodate 70,000 people is now the epicenter of the carnival for it is here that the Samba Parades are now held. These samba parades however are no longer ceremonial parades but constitute a serious competition in which Rio’s premier Samba schools compete. These Samba schools are community dance halls where residents of a particular ‘favela’ (an indigenous shanty town of Rio de Janeiro) gather to dance and foster the feeling of community. All of Rio’s nearly seventy samba schools participate in the carnival. These schools are organized into six competitive leagues and only those schools that feature in the Special Group, Group A and Group B are allowed to parade in the Sambodromo. The other schools are free to participate in the various other street parades which take place at the Rio carnival.
This parade is meticulously planned and executed as each Samba school creates and executes a performance that showcases its chosen theme, song, color, style and costumes. These themes are either chosen from periods of Brazilian history, from nature or the elements. This theme is then brilliantly illustrated by the Samba schools pageant which usually includes various sections of elaborately costumed participants and ornately decorated floats. Sometimes these floats many of which are motorized have special guests on top like gifted samba dancers who are clad in splendid bejeweled colorful costumes and who nowadays have come to symbolize the Rio Carnival.
Aside from these iconic Samba Parades, the Rio Carnival also includes various other festivities like the Carnival Street bands which are a feature of various Rio neighborhoods. It is estimated that there are more than three hundred Carnival street bands in Rio and these street bands usually get together to play their music on the weekends preceding the Carnival and they often inspire folk to dance the samba to their tunes.
Aside from the Carnival Street Bands, Street parties are also a regular feature of carnival these street parties feature much revelry in the form of open-air dances, feasting and alcohol. In addition to these parties, Carnival balls are also held at the various upscale hotels in Rio like the Copacabana and the Gloria Hotel to celebrate the event of the greatest party on earth, the Rio Carnival. So if you are getting ready to join in the fun, then you better track down a cheap business class ticket to Rio de Janeiro which will enable you to travel in comfort and conserve all your energy for the many festivities of the Rio Carnival.
