Multi Maiden: Brazilian Carnival

Hello

How are you? Here I am, again, still sleepy . I was taking a nap. A few seconds ago, I realized that my brother and friends had the same idea. I was the first to get up, as ever … In a few minutes, I’ll wake up the boys (it seems they won’t wake up by themselves …). Now, I need to write something! It’s Carnival Here I am in my Storm (X-Men) costume! … Actually, I’m wearing short pants and an oversized sweater. I’m at home, dear reader! It’s a cloudy and rainy day, it seems that my beloved city refuses to join the most important national celebration! I decided to write posts related to Carnival until next Tuesday (February 12). This is the first episode of a short series. I hope you enjoy!

Episode 1 – The peculiar relationship that people from São Paulo have with Carnival:

It’s always funny to hear foreigners talking about our Carnival. They seem far more excited than us! *lol* I always hear or read many questions related to our traditions and will try to answer them properly in the next days. But, it seems that the international media gives to people from all over the world the impression that every single person in Brazil celebrates Carnival, dancing, jumping, singing (and drinking) on the streets, or participating in a parade, in costume! Well … this is far to be true! … Are you shocked, my dear reader? Shall I call a doctor? Smiley pensativo There, there … It’s ok! Of course, there are many many people involved in the celebrations, but São Paulo, for instance, is a peculiar city when it comes to Carnival. We have Carnival balls, parades, blocos de Carnaval (groups of people who party on the streets), traditional samba schools. But … at least the most of the middle class population doesn’t care at all about Carnival! Yesterday, I laughed a lot Rindo , because all the comments I’ve heard about Carnival, from my friends, my brother’s classmates, etc., were like:

“ – I love Carnival! I’ll sleep for four days!”

“ – I love Carnival, because the city is empty, there’s less people outside and I can sleep!”

“ – Yes, Carnival! I’ll sleep so much! …”

It seems that we have a sleepy holiday right here! Maybe we should change the traditions, somehow. We should have pajama parties instead of Carnival balls, nap contests instead of costume contests (maybe pajama contests?),bed exhibitions instead of parades! Hey! It would be different, we would attract many tourists this way! Nhé-nhé

I don’t know why does it happen. Rio de Janeiro and Salvador (Bahia) are Carnival cities. Not São Paulo. It doesn’t mean that we are boring. First of all, São Paulo is less sunny than Rio and Salvador. In the beginning, my beloved city was known as São Paulo da garoa (São Paulo of the drizzle), because of the constant drizzles! Work means a lot, here. Maybe this rush and need of self-affirmation through work comes from the History of the city. São Paulo was abandoned for centuries, in the beginning. The work of people made the city. People here didn’t have time or conditions to play guitar and sing and look at a beautiful sunrise. We will always be known as the workers (and neurotic people) of Brazil! Life here is hard. There’s the traffic jams, the public transportation, the crowded places, the endless queues, the stressful routine at work. When the most of people here have some spare time, they sleep. Or travel. But I don’t know people who have travelled this time. We all are at home.

The most of people here don’t have a connection with samba schools or something. I can dance samba, I really like samba, actually! And it’s funny, because I’m a mixed woman, have cinnamon skin and long curly hair, so, it seems that people think I have the obligation to participate in a Carnival parade! *lol* I’ve heard a thousand times: “You should be there, in costume, dancing!” Well … maybe. If I wasn’t shy Smiley envergonhado . I like to dance samba at home, at private parties, sometimes at the disco. But I wasn’t raised in an environment where Carnival means a lot. Anyways, São Paulo has its own type of samba. There are different types of samba and I will write a post about it. The master of samba in São Paulo is Adoniran Barbosa. He’s lovely and funny and his lyrics are a nice description of this weird city. Adoniran shows, for instance, the great connection we all have with the Italians! The way we speak Portuguese is influenced by Italian (even if I know that there are many dialects in Italy, so, there are many ways to speak Italian). So, I’ve chosen a song, to end this post, called Samba Italiano (Italian Samba). It’s a hit of Adoniran Barbosa, a very cute and funny samba, sung in Italian. You will see that it’s very different from the samba of the Carnival parades. And it’s very paulistano.