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Rio de Janeiro 440th Birthday!

Filed under: Rio de Janeiro - February 28th, 2005

Rio de Janeiro will be celebrating its 440th birthday on March 1st!! The city is ready to celebrate this memorable moment. Many celebrations will be going on throughout the city. Special presentations are going to be held at Corcovado, Sugar Loaf Mountain and Copacabana Beach.

As part of the celebration, the ilumination of the Statue of Christ will be changed to color blue exceptionally in the night that Rio turns 440th . In this occasion the color blue will be representing Peace. For 2005, Promoting Peace is the theme to be reflected by catolic people during the Lent, so Rio’s Birthday Organizators deciced to use the same theme in their most popular Monument.

The celebration will be going on during the whole month of March. On March 21st the famous rock singer Lenny Kravitz will be performing alive on the beach of Copacabana. The concert will be opened to all the people on the beach for free.

It is summer time in Brazil, the weather is really hot, so here is a good oportunnity to visit Rio de Janeiro during its birthday. This city full of enchants will be even more beautiful during it’s month birthday.

Carnival 2006! Get ready!

Filed under: Brazil General - February 12th, 2005

If you missed Carnival this year because you didn’t have enough time to book your trip to Brazil, here you can find out in advance when Carnval 2006 will be held. This world famous Brazilian celebration will be held through Feb 23th until Feb 28th. Carnaval in Brazil is more than just party and entertainment. Choosing Rio de Janeiro as your next destination for Carnival 2006 you will also be able to enjoy a warm and incredible summer time at one of the famous beaches in Rio.

During Carnaval you can watch the Samba-Schools Parade alive in the Sambodromo, you can go to the micaretas, where you dance to many carnaval songs on the street, you can enjoy carnaval parties inside clubs and in addition to all these parties you can also get a nice tan on the amazing beaches in Rio de Janeiro!

Get Ready! Carnaval 2006 is already being prepared! In the picture bellow you see one of the Queens of Carnvival. These beautiful Brazilian ladies are the ones responsible for making carnival the most exciting party in the world!

Carnival Parade 2005: Beija Flor is the Champion in Rio de Janeiro

Filed under: Brazil General - February 10th, 2005

Carnival for 2005 is over, but the celebration isn’t, at least not for all the members and fans of a particular samba school in Rio de Janeiro. “Beija-Flor” Samba School was announced as the Champion of the Carnival Parade in Rio de Janeiro for the year of 2005.
After the announcement, around 15.000 people headed towards the Beija Flor samba school building in order to celebrate this important title. This is the third time in a row that Beija-Flor has won the most popular carnival competition in the world. The directors of Beija Flor samba school gave away 20,000 cans of beer to its fans and members during the celebration party in Rio de Janeiro.
As usual, the Carnvival Parade Competition results were really tight in Rio de Janeiro. Every year, all the schools spend a lot of time preparing their parade performance, this way all the performances are really well developed, making the winner only win by a small margin which is usually due to little details.
Bellow you can see the final classification for Carnival 2005 in Rio de Janeiro. This will help you to understand why Beija-Flor shcool fans and members were celebrating their victory with so much passion.

School Name Final Result in Points
1- Beija Flor 399.4
2- Unidos da Tijuca 399.3
3- Grande Rio 398.6
4 -Imperatriz 398.5
5 -Salgueiro 397.9
6-Mangueira 393.8
7- Porto da Pedra 393.5
8- Viradouro 393.4
9- Mocidade 388.7
10- Vila Isabel 386.8
11- Caprichosos 386.3
12 -Imperio Serrano 384.3
13 -Portela 383.9
14 -Tradicao 379

Watch Carnival Videos 2005!!

Filed under: Brazil General - February 7th, 2005

Are you interested in Carnival 2005? Imagine watching some videos from the most popular Brazilian party! Here is an interesting link that brings you to the coverage done in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Step 1 - You must go to the site Rio Carnival Videos!

Step 2 - Click on the word VIDEOS. a pink button, which is found on the left side of the page.

Step 3- Now you are at the actual page you will be viewing the movies on. There are a few subcategories which tell you which school you will be watching the video about. You just click on one of the thumbnails of one of the videos you would like to watch and it will come up on the screen.

Step 4 - Now click on the button that says “Assita Agora” meaning “Watch it now”.

Step 5 - Next step click on the button “Real Player” to watch the video with better quality! If it does not work press Window Player because your computer may not have real player.

To learn more about the samba schools go to About Samba Schools.

Carnival Videos from 2005!

Filed under: Brazil General - February 5th, 2005

Here is a great link for anyone who is interested in seeing some of the carnival 2005 coverage done in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Step 1 - You must go to the site Carnival Videos!

Step 2 - Click on the sentence under the heading of Carnival found on the left side of the page reading: “Imprima a letra do samba-enredo de sua escola favorita! ”

Step 3 - Now you must click VIDEOS, an orange button, which is found on the top right side of the screen.

Step 4 - Now you are at the actual page you will be viewing the movies on. There are a few subcategories which tell you which school you will be watching the video about. You just click on one of the thumbnails of one of the videos you would like to watch and it will come up on the screen.

To learn more about the samba schools go to About Samba Schools.

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