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Carnival Celebrations—Right or Wrong?Awake!—1996 | June 8
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“YOU just can’t resist it,” says Michael. “The music tears you from your chair, moves your feet, flushes your head—you’ve got carnival fever!” Indeed, each year carnival raises the heartbeat of millions around the world, but nowhere is the fever as hot as in the country where Michael lives, Brazil. During the week before Ash Wednesday, Brazil puts on its most splendid dress, throws away its clocks and calendars, and plunges into a spectacle that rocks the country from the Amazon forest to the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. It’s a time to sing, to samba, and to forget.
“That’s one reason why it’s so popular,” explains Michael, who was an ardent carnival celebrator for years. “Carnival gives people a chance to forget their misery.” And especially for millions of poor—living without enough water, without electricity, without employment, and without hope—there is plenty to forget. To them carnival is like an aspirin: it may not cure the problems, but at least it numbs the pain. Add to this the view of carnival held by some of the Roman Catholic clergy—one bishop said that carnival is “very useful for people’s psychological balance.” So it is easy to see why many feel that carnival is a helpful and sanctioned distraction. What, though, is the Bible’s view of carnival celebrations?
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Carnival Celebrations—Right or Wrong?Awake!—1996 | June 8
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Do today’s carnivals contain these revelry-producing ingredients? Consider a few quotes from news reports on carnival celebrations: “Extremely raucous crowds.” “A four-day spree of drinking and all-night partying.” “Carnival hang-over can last several days for some revellers.” The “near-deafening sounds at close quarters make the shows of ‘heavy metal’ groups . . . pale by comparison.” “Today, any carnival celebration without gays is like a steak au poivre without pepper.” “Carnival has become a synonym for complete nudity.” Carnival dances featured “scenes of masturbation . . . and various forms of sex[ual] intercourse.”
Indeed, the similarities between today’s carnivals and those ancient feasts are so striking that a Bacchus reveler would hardly miss a beat if he were to wake up in the midst of a modern-day carnival party. And that should not surprise us, comments Brazilian television producer Cláudio Petraglia, for he says that today’s carnival “originates from the feasts of Dionysus and Bacchus and that, really, is the nature of carnival.” The New Encyclopædia Britannica states that the carnival may be linked to the pagan Saturnalia festival of ancient Rome. So the carnival, while belonging to a different era, belongs to the same family as its predecessors. The family’s name? Revelry.
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