It is perhaps one of the few times, one can witness women almost all their naked glory in public. It is the kind of event where old men sit alongside the road in folding chairs, to watch bodies of all sizes and disproportions, flouncing in the hot sun. It is carnival time.
This festival which began in Egypt, then to Europe, as the Catholics brought religion and slavery to the New World, represents the subsequent cessation from all things fleshly, thus embarking on a new way of life.; before that, celebrate, for after this period “I” would be different.
The lower echelon took to this celebration with gusto, for it allowed them to be free, to drink alcohol, eat anything, paint their faces, curse their oppressors, even use vulgar gestures. Since this festival had been introduced by religious men with authority, the upper class, even though offended, could do very little, especially when their kids wanted to engage in the frolicking.
Brazil’s carnival is the biggest, with some 2 million people per day (Guinness Book of Records). Baltimore Md., this year (July, 2019) had it’s biggest, despite the 90 degree weather. Here’s a look:
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