The main celebration revolves around dressing up in masks and costumes -- "desfrazarse". Carnaval essentially is just a public masquerade party in the street, with people wearing the most random costumes ever. It felt like Halloween meets Gossip Girl walking around today.
My friend, Christina, and I went to the big parade near Retiro Park today. We scored a great spot on the corner of Plaza Independencia, where we saw quite an interesting mixture of people... from drag queens to the cast of Alice in Wonderland to even some KKK members. There were a lot of really cool spectacles as well, with giant floats, flaming torches, and huge human hamster wheels.
I was reminded that the purpose of Carnaval is Catholic at root when the nuns and priests showed up for the one last party before Lent...
Sadly, I couldn't get my video of dancing nuns to work, but there's a picture of some of the dancers in the parade. I think these were supposed to represent traditional Spain.
oh! i forgot to say in my fb message that our formal next friday is masqerade themed so we all got masks at mardi gras! i'll definitely take pics because mine i so legit! but so is everyone else's of course haha. and i had the same thought-that we'll totally look like we're in gossip girl! i just hope no one wears the same mask as me and then tries to kiss some other guy just to make matt mad! haha
ReplyDelete