1. Carnaval #1
Nicolas Pelicioni de OLIVEIRA
Licenciatura em Letras - Ibilce, UNESP
http://nicolas-pelicioni.blogspot.com/
nicolaspelicioni@hotmail.com
English revision by Chantell Irene Smith
Origins
The Carnaval is the most popular Brazilian celebration, and to really
understand it, first we need to know some particulars about Brazilian
history.
In the XVI century, when Brazil was a Portuguese colony, the first
capital of Brazil was set in Salvador, in the Brazilian Northeast.
Only as recently as early XIX century, was the capital transferred to
Rio de Janeiro. That happened when the Portuguese royal family came
to live in Brazil. So, we were the only colony in America with a king
in residence! Later, in the 1960s, Brasília became the capital of
Brazil.

2. The movement of economic power from one place to another made the
population change, too. The population of Salvador moved to South, to
Rio de Janeiro. They brought their music with them, and they met the
aristocracy...
The aristocracy here was very peculiar. The royal family moved to
Brazil because Portugal had been invaded by Napoleon’s army. In 1792,
Prince Regent D. João and his mother, Queen D. Maria I, who was said
to have symptoms insanity, came to Brazil. Britain financed the royal
family’s change of residence from Europe to America. In this way,
Britain had a friendly, or perhaps not so friendly influence over
Brazil and, consequently, over Latin America in the XIX century.
We have, even now, an expression related to Britain here: we say
“para inglês ver.” That’s because during a period of time Britain
controlled some manufacturing production in Brazil, and since that
production was fiscally controlled by the British, in order to avoid
doing extra work the manufacturers used to make one single excellent
sample among the ordinary ones to show to the inspector. No one was
allowed to touch that excellent sample, it was set aside “for the
British to see.”
Movie poster of Carlota Joaquina
There’s a historical account, which was adapted into a movie (Carlota
Joaquina – Princesa do Brasil, 1995, directed by Carla Camurati),
about the royal family in Brazil. The journey from Europe to America

3. wasn’t easy, and during the trip the ship had a lice infestation. In
order to protect herself, the princess had her hair cut and wore a
scarf on her head. She was wearing a scarf when arrived, and for this
reason, scarves immediately became fashionable.
The Carnaval was brought to Brazil by the Portuguese. At first it was
called “entrudo,” and took place in the Northeast. After the
population moved to the South, it was influenced by the aristocracy
and adopted characteristics of the European masquerade ball. But
Carnaval is not only a big celebration.
References
“História do Samba.” 30 Jan. 2013
<http://aochiadobrasileiro.webs.com/principal.htm>