The Suncook Town Tragedy - Paul Clayton, Bloody Ballads, British and American Murder Ballads, 1956.

Brazil

Brazil is a country that takes on Carnival from a postmodern and a post-colonial perspective. Although they are strongly influenced from the European version of Carnival, Brazil and other South American countries have been selective about what traditions stick. Shohat and Stam point out, “the Brazilian modernists made the trope of cannibalism the basis of an insurgent aesthetic, calling for a creative synthesis of European avant-gardism and Brazilian ‘cannibalism’ and invoking an ‘anthropophagic’ devouring of the techniques and information of the super-developed countries in order the better to struggle against domination” (49). Carnival has become a forum for Brazilians to take the positive parts of the colonial past while showing their own identity and independence.

Carnival was passed on to South America from colonial times. These countries have the opportunity now to take something white and European and make it something new because “white people create the dominant images of the world and don’t quite see that they thus construct the world in their own image; white people set standards of humanity by which they are bound to succeed and others bound to fail” (Dyer 9). Brazil has put a new spin on an old tradition and revitalized the event of Carnival.

Carnival can be considered a form of low art, for example “The Afro-diaspor coming from artistically developed African culture but now of freedom, education, and material possibilities, managed to tease beauty out of the very guts of deprivation, whether through the musical use of discarded oil drums (the steel drums of Trinidad), the culinary use of throwaway parts of animals (soul food, feijoada), or the use in weaving of throwaway fabrics (quilting)” (Shohat and Stam 52). These would not work next to high art of the opera and ballet. Carnival embraces and celebrates low art. Homemade costumes and homemade food are strongly embedded in the Carnival tradition.

Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras is the American version of Carnival which is mainly celebrated in New Orleans, Louisiana. Because of its commercial influences, this event has been given a lot of hype. It’s is a rare mix of local flare and participants from across the nation celebrating with drinks, beads and outlandish costumes. People check their identity at the door and become someone new. Crowley calls this the “’reversal phenomenon’ where adults play children, children play adults, men play women and women men, the rich poor and the poor rich” (218). People are able to come together in this form of expression, accepting and redefine their exterior. Shohat and Stam state, “By calling attention to the paradoxical attractiveness of the grotesque body, carnival rejects what might be called the ‘fascism of beauty,’ the construction of an ideal type of language of beauty in relation to which other types are seen as inferior, ‘dialectical’ variations” (46). Carnival is an ample medium to question traditional beauty and construct new forms of beauty.

Netherlands

The tradition of carnival is considered to be a cultural phenomenon. This event is celebrated in all corners of the earth today. This could be considered a high mimetic European tradition that has been oppressed on a polyphonic culture. Balkhtin
considers ‘carnivalization’ of other countries to be an “external and immobile schema which is imposed upon ready-made content… an extraordinary flexible form of artistic visualization, a peculiar sort of heuristic principle making possible the discovery of new and yet unseen things” (Shohat and Stam 43).

Carnival is a rare example of how cultures can use a similar theme to create something completely unique and original. Crowley remakes, “The very multiplicity of carnivals requires comparison, and what an unexpected picture emerges: the most astonishing characteristic of Carnival is its conservatism of form in a situation designed to maximize innovation and creativity” (218). By pointing out specific areas that celebrate this event there would be definite differences to compare and contrast.

In the Netherlands, each town will celebrate the same event but each town has their own customs and traditions. Every town has their own carnival emblem and polka song.

A Brief History

Before the religious time of mourning called Lent, traditionally people are not allowed to have festive events or eat specific meals. Lent occurs for forty days to memorialize the Passion of Jesus. It is common for the people to celebrate before the forty days of fasting. Parts of the carnival traditions, are inspired before pre-Christian times. The ancient Roman festival of the Saturnalia is a probable origin of the Italian Carnival. The Saturnalia could be based on the Greek Dionysian and Oriental festivals. While medieval pageants and festivals such as Corpus Christi were church sanctioned celebrations, carnival was a demonstration of medieval folk culture.

Many local carnival customs are also based on local pre-Christian rituals, for example the elaborate rites involving masked figures in the Swabian-Alemannic carnival. Parading and masquerading are some of the most famous traditions in Christianity which originated from medieval Italy. The carnival of Venice was for a long time the most famous carnival.

From Italy, carnival traditions spread to Spain, Portugal, and France. From France, they spread to the Rhineland of Germany, and to New Orleans. From Spain and Portugal, they spread to Latin America. Many other areas have developed their own traditions.