Carnaval, the lead up

 

I associate Carnaval with Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and so I associate it there with a very dear friend Matthew who... died. 

And is dead.

Dead dead dead dead dead. 

Kinda for awhile now, which doesn't make it any better.

Matthew was lovely, and quirky, and immensely talented, and very New Orleans. I still remember the first moment I saw him, on the campus of The California College of Arts and Crafts in the 1980's. He was dressed like he had walked out of the Continental Congress, his hair tied back in a bow like Thomas Jefferson.

I visited him twice in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. And though I am not by nature inclined towards massive drunken street parties, I have mainly fond memories of these events.

So it was a bit of a surprise to find that my new city has the third largest Carnaval in the world!

What does that mean?

I really don't know. It might be the kind of statistic bandied about here, but not as strongly supported everywhere else? Rio and Venice don't seem to be in any dispute for first and second largest carnavals. Third place gets a little murky. New Orleans? My own city? Cologne? Trinidad?

Whatever.

It is kind of big.

At least I think so. It just started.

The build up was something else though. The city has been preparing for it for at least a month. We transitioned directly from Christmas decorations and Christmas villages into massive bleachers and infrastructure for an event taking up the whole of the Massena Square. But even though there was a ton of structural preparation, as we got closer to the opening it didn't really feel like so much was happening. Out and about on the official first day of Carnaval there were a few more things to see, more music, more things closing off, but it still felt mostly like preparation.

Today, however, it went off. There was a parade and Carnaval Village finally opened, and while I can't describe it all as terribly wild (maybe because it was daytime), it was crowded and large, and the part of the parade we saw was suitably over the top and amazing, with actual carnivalesque opera.

As people slightly advanced in years we weren't exactly heartbroken that when the parade ended so we could cross the street and get some pastry, cheese, and syrah wine. But there are two weeks more of this and we do have some really nice bleacher tickets for one of the flower parades next week, so you'll likely be hearing more about it.

A quick picture of two giant floats dwarfing our usually impressive central fountain: