Traditional ?arnaval in Rio de Janeiro is taking place once a year and this year, the main celebration in the city will last from 2 to 5 February. The main event of the carnival is a competition in the traditional dance Samba. In Rio de Janeiro 12 main samba schools. In fact, it is areas of the city. During the carnival competition is taking place not only in the ability to dance, as well as competition for the best costume and decoration.

Also see last year’s best pictures from the ?arnival in Rio.

Photos: ©Reuters, AP, AFP, DPA

The most colourful part of the Carnival is the brightly lit night parades. Every year some half a million spectators bundle up and line the snowy streets of the city. The parades feature fantastic floats, marching bands and many clowns. Even though it was freezing cold – about six degrees below zero – the night that I watched the parade, I could not believe my eyes when a band of young ladies marched by dressed in kilts.

To the Québécois, Carnaval is more than an annual celebration. It’s a state of mind, a place where for ten days every February, they glorify winter. It’s a place where people’s imaginations take over, where adults can feel like kids again. For the Québécois, winter is a time for rejoicing and what better way to do that than to join them in celebrating Carnaval.

The 2007 Carnival edition is dedicated to Carlo Goldoni. The year 2007 is the three-hundred year anniversary of the birth of Venice’s most famous and most representative playwright. The 2007 Carnival will be a popular and all-embracing one. It will be a mosaic of arts, made up of numerous pieces, with various and entertaining themes: live music, comedy, acrobats, dancing, costume parades with competitions for the most beautiful masks.