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Rio Carnival

13/02/2010 (All day) - 16/02/2010 (All day)

Everyone has heard of the Rio Carnival - it's the benchmark against which every other carnival is compared. A spirit and energy takes over the city and has everyone enraptured for four days of infectious rhythmic shuffling and unbeatable revelry. Rio Carnival is the result of months of preparation. Foreign visitors alone number around 300,000 every year, and the parading samba schools are continuous streams of colour, motion and rhythm. Some have members running into thousands, with as many as 30 floats each and hundreds of drummers. The synchronised steps, swirls and rhythms are faultless. Every samba school strives to win the favour of the crowds and whip the onlookers into a frenzy of singing and dancing. Judges at strategic points along the carnival route grade the contestants on everything from enthusiasm, discipline and costume to rhythm and dance. There are two classes of samba schools: those which parade on the Avenida Rio Branco and those at the Sambadrome. The former are considered less prestigious, but are top quality nonetheless. They're also free. The best views are from the cadeiras (ground level terrace seats), the arquibancadas (terrace seats) and the camarotes (boxes). Boxes are recommended if you pick one of the better viewing areas, which are 4, 7 and 11, but the terraces are more raucous. There are also bandstands for public dancing and a selection of carnival balls around the city. Backpackers and those on a tight budget might also prefer the "alternative" carnival that takes place in the Lapa district in the southern corner of Rio's city centre. Here a stage is erected in front of the famous Arcos de Lapa (the Lapa aqueduct), and bands of all styles play every night.

Carnival of Binche

14/02/2010 (All day) - 16/02/2010 (All day)

New Orleans has Mardi Gras. But Belgium’s got the CARNIVAL OF BINCHE. The famously offbeat festival, which brightens the town of Binche just 30 miles from Brussels, curls through the streets in a parade of live music and quirky costumed characters. It culminates on Shrove Tuesday, when revelers dressed in Belgium’s national colors march to Binche’s Grand Place for what’s been called the world’s largest food fight. Actually, they toss thousands of oranges to the crowd.

New Orleans Mardi Gras

16/02/2010 (All day)

It is New Orleans' premiere party season! It's time to enjoy life, party, and have a good time! It's irresistibly fun, vibrant, sarcastic, and sassy! If you understand how this city hums during the day and sings at night, you may be able to envision its celebration of Mardi Gras. Perhaps it's the anticipation of the merriment, the excitement of catching throws, the extravaganza of the parades, getting dressed up in costume, or going to a Ball - but a frame of mind takes over the Big Easy and says "forget your problems and have fun!"

Hadaka Matsuri

26/02/2010 - 3:00pm - 6:00pm

During Hadaka Matsuri bare-bottomed men ensure their good luck by crowding the streets of Inazawa City in the hope of touching a naked man! Since 767 BC the Naked Man, aka Shin-otokoa, has walked this gauntlet to reach the Kounomiya Shrine. Shinto tradition believes that the Naked Man absorbs all bad luck and evil deeds from the men who touch him - no-one is sure, but the ritual may commemorate the end of a plague, as the Naked Man takes on the ills of the community and is then expelled from it. It is a great honour to be chosen as the Shin-otokoa. It needs to be - first he must undergo elaborate purification rites by shaving off all the hair on his body. He then sets off through the streets, besieged by up to 9000 men, all desperate to touch him. He is pummelled, chased, pulled over; he faints, is bruised and must spend an entire day in the thick of a heaving mass of loinclothed bodies while completely naked. When he finally arrives at his destination, the crowd jostle to grab any available part of his body for an hour or more before he can pay his respects to the Shinto deity of the shrine. Once he is dressed he is then shooed out of town to rid the town of all evil. Only the men dressed in loincloths and sandals are allowed to touch the Naked Man and special bodyguards line the route to splash freezing water over them as the Naked Man draws near. This has the dual purpose of restraining the wild impulses of the loinclothed ones while creating an aura of mystery around the steaming man.

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