Carnival of Madeira

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Carnival of Madeira
Roman Catholicism)
SignificanceFive days before Ash Wednesday
Frequencyannual
Related toAsh Wednesday, Valentine's Day, Lent, Carnival

The

Roman Catholics traditionally abstained from the consumption of meat and poultry, hence the term "carnival," from carnelevare, "to remove (literally, "raise") meat."[1]

Organization

One of the first major festivals of the year in Madeira, apart from the

Dia dos Reis, the Madeira carnival is known as one of the best in Europe. Traditionally, there are two main carnival parades in Madeira, which are very different from each other. The allegoric parade, which takes place always on the Saturday of the Carnival weekend, is the more sophisticated one and needs a great deal of commitment and organisation from all the groups and the people involved. Numerous samba groups with thousands of participants in magnificent and colourful costumes dance to electrifying samba music through the streets of Funchal, spreading an ambiance evoking the Rio Carnival
.

The second parade, called ‘trapalhão’, is older and used to occur all over the island, now it floods the streets of the city centre with thrilling joy on Terça-feira Gorda, ending the Carnival period. In this parade everybody can take part and the – sometimes quite daring – costumes and depicted caricatures are left to the participants’ own imagination.

Both parades have a defined itinerary in the city centre and end at the Municipal Square (Praça do Município) where more entertainment with live music and costume competitions is provided.

At least one month before the Carnival peak time the best-known and established Carnival groups visit the hotels and entertain the guests with dance and music performances.

During the 19th century people from Madeira emigrated to

Malasada Day
in Hawaii.

Traditionally the people of

Malasadas
are sold alongside the main carnival parade on Saturday and on the last one, the trapalhão on Terça-feira Gorda (Shrove Tuesday).

Arguably, the

caravels passed regularly through Madeira, a territory which already celebrated emphatically its carnival season, and where they were loaded with goods but also people and their ludic and cultural expressions who then lend them to what would become the biggest cultural manifestation in modern Brazil.[2][3]

Themes of the Saturday Parades

See also

  • Malasada

References

  1. ^ "Carnival". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
  2. ^ "SAPO". Archived from the original on 9 February 2015.
  3. ^ "Historiador diz que Carnaval da Madeira pode ter influenciado festividades no Brasil". Sicnoticias.sapo.pt. Archived from the original on 28 August 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
  4. ^ "Carnival Programme 2011" (PDF). Madeiraislands.travel. Retrieved 9 August 2017.[permanent dead link]
  5. ^ "Carnival Programme 2012" (PDF). Madeiraislands.travel. Retrieved 9 August 2017.[permanent dead link]
  6. ^ "Carnival Programme 2013" (PDF). Madeiraislands.travel. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2014. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
  7. ^ "Carnival Programme 2014" (PDF). Madeiraislands.travel. Retrieved 9 August 2017.[permanent dead link]
  8. ^ "Carnival Programme 2017" (PDF). Visitmadeira.pt. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  9. ^ "Carnival Programme 2018" (PDF). Visitmadeira.pt. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  10. ^ "Carnival Programme 2019" (PDF). Visitmadeira.pt. Retrieved 26 February 2019.
  11. ^ "Search".

External links

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