Barranquilla's Carnival

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Barranquilla's Carnival Carnaval de Barranquilla
Barranquilla's Carnival 2007 promotional poster.
Official name	Carnaval de Barranquilla
Observed by	Various locales, usually ones historically associated with Catholic populations
Type	Local, cultural, christian
Significance	Celebration prior to fasting season of Lent.
Date	Day before Ash Wednesday
2007 date	February 17, 18, 19 and 20.
Celebrations	Parades, parties, orchestas festival
Related to	Carnival SZ + ADP

Barranquilla's Carnaval (Spanish: Carnaval de Barranquilla) is a carnival with traditions that date back to the 19th century. It takes place for four days preceding Ash Wednesday. During the carnival the city of Barranquilla's normal activities are paralyzed because the city gets busy with street dances, musical and masquerade parades. Barranquilla's Carnival is reputed for being second in size to Rio's, but is far less commercialized. The Barranquilla Carnival includes dances like the Spanish paloteo, African congo and indigenous mico y micas. Many styles of Colombian music are also performed, most prominently cumbia, and instruments include drums and wind ensembles. The Carnival of Barranquilla was proclaimed by UNESCO, in November of 2003, as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, during Olga Lucia Rodriquez carnival queen year.

The Carnaval Itself: Barranquilla's Carnaval is a Colombian feast exposed to the world. The feast contains a mixtures of cumbias, porros, mapales,gaitas, chandés, puyas, fandangos y fantásticos merecumbés. These are many styles of colombian music. It is a feast that gathers up tradition from based on creativity from their people and it is expressed in forms of dancing, by means of music, by different forms of artesanies, by wearing different customs, and by they way of celebreting. The Carnaval of barranquilla is unique because of its cultural diversity and because it is a feast where the people are protagonist. Every dance, every folkloric group,and every custom play different roles to make the feast the best show on earth.

Diversity of the Carnaval: The Carnaval of Barranquilla is multicultural, diverse and rich in different cultural expressions. Its dancing and dancing expressions, just like their music, they gather a little bit from every city of the Caribbean part of Colombia. The Carnaval's diversity can be categorized in seven different blocks: Traditional dancings or folkloric dancings, dancing relation or manifestation dancings, especial dancings or choreographic dancings, Comparsas (a form of music), this is where choreography of dancings and creativity of dancings are expressed, Comedies, these are traditional and folkloric popular theater, where oral expression is its primary characteristic, Litany, these are traditional groups that sing along a choir and last but not least the customs, they can be individual, or collectives, structural, and dramatic, they all contribute to the foundation of the Carnaval of barranquilla.

1 Barranquilla's Carnival Timeline
2 See also
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Barranquilla's Carnival Timeline

1888: King Momo emerges as one of the main characters.

1899: The first president of the carnival is appointed.

1903: The first Battle of Flowers parade (Spanish: Batalla de las Flores) takes place.

1918: The first beauty queen of the carnival is elected. The queen is the person in charge of hosting the carnival's ceremonies.

1923: Beauty queen contests become an institution of the carnival. Until this time the contest had been suspended for 5 years.

1967: The first Great Parade takes place and takes place on the second day of the carnival, usually on Sundays.

1974: The first Guacherna takes place, the evento had the purpose of rescueing lost traditions of Cumbia and drums. Guachernas are celebrated in the suburbs (barrios).