People kiss before the start of the Carmelitas street party on the first day of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, February 9, 2024. (Photo by Bruna Prado/AP Photo)
Raquel Poti performs on stilts during the Amigos da Onca street Carnival party, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, February 10, 2024. (Photo by Bruna Prado/AP Photo)
A masquerader from the Paramin Blue Devils parades before judges during the traditional mas competition held by the National Carnival Commission at Victoria Square, in the capital Port-of-Spain, February 12, 2015. (Photo by Andrea De Silva/Reuters)
Parade participants during the traditional “Masopust Carnival” festival on February 13, 2018 in Roztoky near Prague, Czech Republic. Known as Masopust (literally, “giving up meat”), the festival was traditionally the last chance to eat and drink in excess before the austerity of Lent. (Photo by Margot Buff/RFE/RL)
Revellers celebrate “Ash Monday” by participating in a colourful “flour war”, a traditional festivity marking the end of the carnival season and the start of the 40-day Lent period until the Orthodox Easter, in Galaxidi, Greece February 19, 2018. (Photo by Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters)
Anilson Costa, reveller of the annual block party “Ceu na Terra”, walks along the Santa Teresa neighborhood where the block party used to be celebrated, as Carnival celebrations have been canceled, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on February 12, 2021. (Photo by Pilar Olivares/Reuters)
A reveller helps a woman prepare her costume after the normal Notting Hill Carnival festivities were cancelled for a second year running, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in London, Britain, August 30, 2021. (Photo by Beresford Hodge/Reuters)
A reveler in costume laughs during the “Cordao do Boitata” street party in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, February 24, 2019, one of the many parades before the official start of Carnival on March 1. (Photo by Leo Correa/AP Photo)