So you ask yourself... "what the hell is carnaval?!?!"Well, if you come from a catholic country you should be well aware of it, if not I will take a couple of minutes to explain it.
It is like Halloween but, with a religious connotation, it used to mark the beginning of the fasting before easter and just like easter its celebration date moves around every year... It is sort of moment of insanity before all of the Lent restrictions!
Last year I started to do a little statistic about what costumes were more popular (it was a ferocious fight between noddy and spiderman), but this year I decide it to turn it up a notch and make it more official!!
Out of 128 kids in costume that I saw:
12 were dressed as clowns (for some reason parents still dress their offspring as clowns even though it scares the crap out of most kids)
9 as fairies, princesses and witches (oh yes, the girly choice, yawn)
7 represented the bug world by dressing as ladybugs (all toddlers, must be because they cannot fight back)
5 as spidermen (one of last year's big winners, one this year's sore losers) and maiden
4 as cannibals (what's with this old and tired costume? Why does it keep on coming back like a haunted boomerang?) and zorros
3 as lions, Chinese (again with the crummy racist stereotypes), nazarenas (Portuguese tradional costume from Nazaré, a kind of fishmonger's wife), punks (sweet irony, even little kids dress as punks now), dogs, devils (as always Satan is well represented) and little red riding hoods.
2 as minhotas (another Portuguese traditional costume, this time from the north of the country), Pippi Longstockings, cowboys, American Indians (ok... so it carries on, I'm not even going to comment this one), pirates, mariachis (I'm not blaming the parents for these ones... they were grown up), Robin Hoods and bears.
1 as bee, Arab (please... who dressed a child as an Arab and finds it funny?), samba dancer (just ask a Brazilian person), Batman (I was very surprised, usually there are more of them around, maybe they were hiding in the bat-cave), Snow White, Sea Captain (?!?!), knight, mad scientist (I actually felt bad for this kid... his mum's heart wasn't really in it), rabbit, French maid (now this was interesting to look for on the internet, guess why?), Egyptian queen, skeleton, nun (why was a grown woman dress as a nun in a shopping center?! In a mini skirt?! another interesting one to look for a picture on the internet), cat, mickey and minnie mouse (unfortunately not together, sparking those age old rumors that mickey is actually gay), musketeer, noddy (bastard!! there was still one of them!!), belly dancer (why oh why does a mother dress her daughter like this?), duck, prince, roman soldier (or Hercules, we couldn't decide), flamenco dancer and finally a bullfighter (my heart bleeds for this particular kid).
What was my conclusion, apart from the fact that I might suffer from a mild case of dementia?
There weren't as many kids dressed up on the street as there used to be when I was little, maybe its because it was cold, or parents couldn't afford costumes this year, or I was just going in the wrong direction!! Or maybe there just aren't as many kids on the streets strutting their stuff in smelly old rented costumes, as they are all staying inside having theire brains collectively numbified by the tv and games consoles.
Carnaval just isn't what it used to be!
P.S: I want to thank my lovely bear for helping me on this quest! you're the best, babe!!
9 as fairies, princesses and witches (oh yes, the girly choice, yawn)
7 represented the bug world by dressing as ladybugs (all toddlers, must be because they cannot fight back)
5 as spidermen (one of last year's big winners, one this year's sore losers) and maiden
4 as cannibals (what's with this old and tired costume? Why does it keep on coming back like a haunted boomerang?) and zorros
3 as lions, Chinese (again with the crummy racist stereotypes), nazarenas (Portuguese tradional costume from Nazaré, a kind of fishmonger's wife), punks (sweet irony, even little kids dress as punks now), dogs, devils (as always Satan is well represented) and little red riding hoods.
2 as minhotas (another Portuguese traditional costume, this time from the north of the country), Pippi Longstockings, cowboys, American Indians (ok... so it carries on, I'm not even going to comment this one), pirates, mariachis (I'm not blaming the parents for these ones... they were grown up), Robin Hoods and bears.
1 as bee, Arab (please... who dressed a child as an Arab and finds it funny?), samba dancer (just ask a Brazilian person), Batman (I was very surprised, usually there are more of them around, maybe they were hiding in the bat-cave), Snow White, Sea Captain (?!?!), knight, mad scientist (I actually felt bad for this kid... his mum's heart wasn't really in it), rabbit, French maid (now this was interesting to look for on the internet, guess why?), Egyptian queen, skeleton, nun (why was a grown woman dress as a nun in a shopping center?! In a mini skirt?! another interesting one to look for a picture on the internet), cat, mickey and minnie mouse (unfortunately not together, sparking those age old rumors that mickey is actually gay), musketeer, noddy (bastard!! there was still one of them!!), belly dancer (why oh why does a mother dress her daughter like this?), duck, prince, roman soldier (or Hercules, we couldn't decide), flamenco dancer and finally a bullfighter (my heart bleeds for this particular kid).
What was my conclusion, apart from the fact that I might suffer from a mild case of dementia?
There weren't as many kids dressed up on the street as there used to be when I was little, maybe its because it was cold, or parents couldn't afford costumes this year, or I was just going in the wrong direction!! Or maybe there just aren't as many kids on the streets strutting their stuff in smelly old rented costumes, as they are all staying inside having theire brains collectively numbified by the tv and games consoles.
Carnaval just isn't what it used to be!
P.S: I want to thank my lovely bear for helping me on this quest! you're the best, babe!!
1 comment:
Thank you!)
I'm glad that you liked it...
I was quite sad that there weren't any ninjas around this year, there's usually a couple of them around
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