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Understanding Carnival

Filed under: Brazil General - February 1st, 2005

Do you know how a samba-school becomes the Champion of the Carnival? There are 10 different categories in which the schools compete to get the most points.

1. Harmony - Judged on how well the singers of each samba-school sing their theme music.
2. Enredo - How the theme chosen by the school is performed and displayed during the parade.
3. Band (drummers) - the heart of the samba-schools; they bring so much joy and enthusiasm to the Sambodromo; if a school doesn’t receive a perfect mark for their drummers, it is considered a big loss.
4. Samba Enredo - Carnival Music Theme; the samba schools gets points from the melody and lyrics of their theme song.
5. Alegorias e Aderecos - These are the samba-schools floats, each school will be market on their uniqueness and how decorative they can make the cars.
6. Mestre Sala e Porta-Bandeira - The mestre sala is a guy who dances around the girl holding the samba-schools flag throughout the whole parade. The girl is named porta-bandeira, or flag holder.
7. Comissao de Frente - Those who introduce the parade for each school, welcoming the public to enjoy their performance.
8. Evolucao - The rhythm and speed that it takes each of the schools to pass through the Sambodromo. If they go over-time they lose marks.
9. Fantasy/Costume - The samba schools will receive high points if they have fancy and original costumes during the carnival parade.
10. Conjunto - The general vision of the carnival parade performance of each samba-school.

Now, if you are going to the Sambodromo during Carnival 2005 you will be able to notice all the effort that samba-schools do to be the best in all the categories.

CARNAVAL 2005 - Join the party here at www.cities-in-brazil.com