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2021, the year without Carnival

  • 2021, the year without Carnival.
    Photo: Pablo Munini @pablomunini 2021, the year without Carnival.
  • 2021, the year without Carnival.
    Photo: Pablo Munini @pablomunini 2021, the year without Carnival.
  • 2021, the year without Carnival.
    Photo: Pablo Munini @pablomunini 2021, the year without Carnival.
  • 2021, the year without Carnival.
    Photo: Pablo Munini @pablomunini 2021, the year without Carnival.
Region:
World
Category:
Society
Article type:
Approaches
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By Pablo Munini @pablomunini
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Instead of the beautiful and  whimsical  Carnival  masks that embolden the wearer and bring us together in celebration, we must wear the lackluster and utilitarian masks of social distancing, isolating us and breeding division.

A winter sunset descends on Venice. The architectural forms of the “Canale Grande” are blurred in the spectral light. Absent are the familiar silhouettes of the gondoliers, and a ghostly quiet reigns.

Almost no one, certainly no joyous, masked Carnival revellers, is headed this year to Piazza San Marco, often called "the most beautiful drawing room in Europe".

Venice will not see its angel descend from the high bell tower of its main square. And thousands of kilometers away in Barranquilla, Colombia, the Carnival queen has not passed down the Via 40 tossing colorful blossoms to the people in the “Batalla de las Flores “(Battle of Flowers), baptizing the exuberant Caribbean Carnival.

In Rio de Janeiro, the Sambodromo, the famous architect Oscar Niemayer’s Carnival temple, sits alone, silent and unlit. The mayor of Rio has not handed over the keys to the Wonderful City to King Momo. In Ipanema the signs along Visconde de Piraja say it’s 40 degrees Celsius, but the atmosphere feels glacial in the Wonderful City without the sambas, the "batuques", and "blocos" of neighbors and friends filling the avenue, dancing and singing without inhibition or taboos.

2021, the year without Carnival.

Instead of the beautiful and  whimsical  Carnival  masks  that  embolden  the  wearer  and  bring us together in celebration, we must wear the lackluster and utilitarian masks of social distancing, isolating us and breeding division.

The Venice Carnival is a feast of art and of aesthetic perfection. Rio de Janeiro’s is the wildness of life without limits. In Barranquilla, it  is  the cultural  symbiosis of colonial Europe and Africa in a beautiful Caribbean setting.

I have enjoyed going to these Carnivals during my lifetime. But these three Carnivals, like many others, will not happen this year.

In 2019 I had the intention of visiting all three Carnivals, but I had to resign myself to the realities of time, as the flight times between each of the cities would have made it impossible. Instead, I opted for the life and color of the two main Carnivals in South America. 

This is why on the second day of Carnival in Barranquilla, after the “Great Tradition and Folklore Parade-“ - an exuberant tribute to the dance and music of the Colombian Caribbean - concluded, I gave the rest of my tickets to a stranger next to me in the stands and started off for the airport. Along the way to the airport, each house in Barranquilla had its own Carnival going on, each with music blasting from its interior and its exterior uniquely decorated, always different from its neighbor. After several plane changes, I arrived in Rio to mingle with the "blocos" groups on the beach avenues, and attend the samba schools Champion’s Parade.

Carnival has its most refined expression in Venice, and its most intense and exuberant in Rio and Barranquilla. But all these Carnivals unite diverse and distant worlds, worlds that contrast in culture and history but share a common thread in history and devotion to the celebration. 

Behind the formal Venetian masks that create such an air of mystery, I have discovered many warm and sensitive people. They work meticulously all year to perfect every detail of their masks and costumes, until the day finally comes when they can present their artistry and hard work to the world in San Marco Square. 
In the same way, Rio’s samba schools and Barranquilla’s over eight hundred parade groups work and practice rigorously all year to refine every aspect of their lavish presentations.

In addition to the vivid spectacles and parades, Carnival is the fleeting illusion of social equality. It is the power, for a few days, to  flaunt oneself,  and  to be  someone else.  It is a time to indulge and provoke, to escape social class and rank, to come together and celebrate being alive.

The increasing popularity of Carnival celebrations around the world has transformed entire cities, enriching their tourism and service industries and contributing significantly to their local economies.
The 2019 Venice Carnival had a turnover of 60 million euros. The famous Rio celebration in the same year generated a monstrous 700 million dollars. Barranquilla's in 2020 had an enormous economic impact, generating 85 million dollars.

 2021, the year without Carnival,  has  deprived  this  most  awaited  event of  the  year  from these three cities, and has adversely and severely affected their economies.

English text by Meredith Brunel