Fantasias do carnaval brasileiro

Carnaval is unfortunately over! But the boas notícias (good news) is there’s still plenty to talk about the most popular party in the country.

Brazilian people are known for their alegria (joy) and bom humor (sense of humor). During carnaval, people take the opportunity to wear fantasias (costumes), put on glitter and dress up for parties to use their creativity when it comes to getting the outfits ready. Many of them, of course, are very traditional, like dressing as an indian, baiana (people from the region of Bahia), Carmen Miranda, hula dancer, pirate or super hero. But there are moments when our imagination runs wild. Conheça (get to know) the story behind some very successful costumes that were very popular this year and could only make sense in a place like Brazil:

João Dória e muro – João Dória and wall:

The city of São Paulo is very well-known for the street art present in its muros (walls). Recently, mayor João Dória, elected at the end of 2016, launched the program Cidade linda (Beautiful City), which aims at the “cleaning” of graffiti as one of its actions. At the launch of the program, Doria dressed in the uniform of the city’s municipal cleaners and covered the art on the walls with gray paint in a major SP avenue.

The action was severely criticized and some foliões (revelers) took advantage of the Carnaval to make fun of the mayor:

Grávida de Taubaté – Pregnant woman from Taubaté

In 2012, uma mulher (a woman) surprised Brazil with donation requests on grounds that she had little financial means and was pregnant with quadruplets. After much repercussion, photographic shoots and interviews for the media, it was descoberto (discovered) that the pregnancy was falsa (fake) and that she was deceiving even her marido (husband) with a barriga (belly) made of silicone and fabric.

After the story, she even went to trial for identity theft, because a false ultrasound was used to prove the pregnancy, but in 2014 the judge chose not to punish the woman. From then on the figure of “Pregnant woman from Taubaté” became present in all Brazilian carnavais. Earlier this year, a similar story took place and brought strength to all the memes and costumes, but it was later revealed that it was nothing more than a cosplay for the elective process of a humorous group on Facebook.

Mônica Deformada – Deformed Mônica

Turma da Mônica is an iconic series of comic books created by the cartoonist Maurício de Sousa. The origin of the series dates back from 1959, when strips began to be published in a jornal (newspaper) and, in 1970, it was transformed into magazine. To this day, the success of the Turma da Mônica is immense and the magazines are part of the initiation to literacy and reading of many crianças brasileiras (Brazilian children).

The importance of the series for a child’s identity meant that many children’s schools decided to use the image of Turma da Mônica characters on their walls, gates, etc. The problem is that the reproduction usually goes wrong and the results are somewhat disproportionate characters. The page Mônicas Deformadas em Muros de Escolas (https://www.facebook.com/monicasdeformadas/?fref=nf ) made a compilation of photos of these walls and inspired costumes at this carnaval. You can even find the file to download and print the mask.

Catuaba Selvagem

Catuaba is one of the most beloved bebida (drink) Brazilian carnaval (we talked about catuaba before on a post about Brazilian drinks: https://blogs.transparent.com/portuguese/brazilian-drinks/) . Produced from the root, bark and leaves of plants that popularly take the name of catuaba, it is believed that it has aphrodisiac properties. The mixture with açaí that is usually sold on the streets during Carnaval even started being made by Selvagem (Wild), the most famous brand of Catuaba in the country:

To honor the drink that brings joy to tantas pessoas (so many people) on carnaval, some revelers were inspired by the classic label of Catuaba Selvagem to create their costumes:

O que vocês acharam? What did you think?

Did you have fun on Carnaval? More about it on the next posts!

Tenham uma boa semana! Have a good week!