3655 N.W. 87th Avenue
Miami
Florida
33178-2428
U.S.A.
Company Perspectives
Our mission is to deliver exceptional vacation experiences through the world's best-known cruise brands that cater to a variety of different lifestyles and budgets, all at an outstanding value unrivaled on land or at sea.
History of Carnival Corporation
Begun with one ship that ran aground on its maiden voyage, Carnival Corporation has since grown into the most successful and prominent American cruise line. Carnival is the largest cruise company in the world with 12 brands in its arsenal, including Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn Cruise Line, Windstar Cruises, Costa Cruises, P&O Cruises, Cunard White Star Line, Swan Hellenic, Ocean Village, Aida, and P&O Cruises Australia. Carnival has combined these cruise lines into an operating fleet of 79 state-of-the-art ships that sail the seven seas. Through innovative vacation packaging and extensive advertising campaigns, the family-operated company has changed the face of the cruise industry by coaxing thousands of middle-class customers aboard its floating resorts. After its purchase of P&O Princess Cruises plc in 2003, Carnival Corporation became a dual-listed company with U.K.-based Carnival plc.
Early History
Carnival was founded in 1972 by Ted Arison, an Israeli immigrant. After serving in World War II with the British Army and in Israel's War of Independence, in the late 1940s Arison founded a cargo line running between Israel and New York, but was put out of business by competition from the Israeli state-run shipping line. In 1954 he moved to the United States, where he took a position as cargo manager for El Al, Israel's national airline. He eventually founded his own air freight company, Trans Air System, which went public in the late 1960s.
In 1968, at the age of 42, Arison moved to Miami to operate a small Israeli-owned cruise ship running between Florida and the Caribbean. When the Israeli government impounded the boat to collect the owners' debt, Arison quickly filled a Norwegian Caribbean Line ship with the customers he had lined up. Convinced that he should own boats rather than operate them for others, in 1972 he entered into a partnership with former schoolmate Meshulam Riklis, who then owned the travel conglomerate American International Travel Service (AITS). They formed Carnival Cruise as a subsidiary of AITS, and for $6.5 million they purchased the ship Empress of Canada, which they renamed the Mardi Gras.
The ship's first voyage was less than spectacular: The Mardi Gras ran aground off the Florida coast with several hundred travel agents on board. Future voyages went more smoothly, however, and in 1974 Arison bought Riklis's share of Carnival for $1, also assuming the company's debt of more than $5 million. To cut costs, Arison sought to reduce fuel consumption by reducing the speed of the Mardi Gras and the number of stops it made. This simple economizing measure was to revolutionize the entire cruise industry. Since passengers would have to spend more time at sea between Caribbean ports of call, Arison added more on-board entertainment features, including a disco, casino, movie theater, and nightclubs. Carnival's marketing staff quickly dubbed the Mardi Gras the "Fun Ship," and other cruise lines soon followed Arison's lead.
Growth and Expansion: 1970-80
In the 1970s the hit television series The Love Boat helped revitalize the cruise industry, bringing people on board ships in larger numbers than ever before: Between 1970 and 1986 the number of people taking cruises soared from 500,000 to 2.1 million. By 1978 Arison had three ships running seven-day cruises from Florida to the Caribbean and in the Caribbean itself: the Mardi Gras; the Carnivale, which he bought in 1975; and the Festivale, which he bought in 1977. Despite a bad economy and high fuel prices, in 1978 Arison also contracted for a fourth ship, the Tropicale, which was completed in 1982. In 1979 Arison's 30-year-old son, Micky Arison, was named president and chief executive of the company.
The 1980s brought the cruise industry massive expansion: Between 1981 and 1991 the number of berths on North American cruise ships grew from 41,000 to 84,000. Carnival was the chief exponent and beneficiary of the boom. In 1982 Carnival's four boats carried some 200,000 passengers, with the firm earning $40 million on revenues of about $200 million. During the next decade the number of passengers carried per year nearly quintupled. Beginning in 1980, Carnival's revenues grew 30 percent annually, three times faster than the average for the cruise business as a whole. During the recession of the early 1980s, Carnival ordered three more ships, the first from the Danish Aalborg shipyard at a cost of $180 million and two additional ships from the Swedish state shipbuilding company, Svenska Varv, for a total of $262 million. With the completion of these three "superliners"--Holiday, Jubilee, and Celebration--Carnival had the world's largest cruise line fleet, with seven ships.
1980-90: An Innovative Marketing Campaign
To help fill these ships, Carnival adopted aggressive marketing and advertising strategies. In 1984 Carnival initiated the memorable "Fun Ship" advertising campaign, which featured talk show host Kathie Lee Gifford partaking of shipboard amenities and singing "We've Got the Fun." In 1984, for what was then the largest network television advertising campaign in the cruise industry, Carnival spent $10 million to advertise during The Love Boat and network news shows.
To gain support from travel agents, Carnival routinely sent representatives to travel agencies to inquire about vacation options. If the agent recommended a cruise as a first option, the representative would give the agent $10. If the agent's first recommendation was a Carnival cruise, he or she would get $1,000. By the end of 1989 Carnival had given away more than $500,000 with this program.
In an attempt to attract younger, more middle-class customers to cruises, which had traditionally been the preserve of older, upper-class travelers, Carnival offered cheaper, shorter trips--in 1988 the company's low-priced air and sea packages were approximately 20 percent below industry averages. Advertising efforts targeted toward the younger market included a 1988 Fourth of July party on a Carnival ship that was broadcast on MTV. These strategies paid off: In 1989 the annual household income of passengers was between $25,000 and $50,000, and 30 percent of the passengers in the early 1990s were between the ages of 25 and 39. In addition, Carnival's ships were consistently running at full capacity.
Strategic Acquisitions
In 1987 Ted Arison sold 18 percent of the shares of his private empire, raising nearly $400 million for the company, and Carnival went on a spending spree. The company entered into a contract for the Ecstasy, sister ship to the Fantasy, which had been ordered earlier in the year. In addition, Carnival attempted to buy the cruise ship business of Gotaas-Larsen Shipping Corporation, which owned part of Royal Caribbean and a majority of Admiral Cruise Lines, but the sale did not go through.
In 1988 Carnival purchased the Holland America Line for $625 million. A longstanding company with four cruise ships and about 4,500 berths, Holland America sailed to the Alaska coast in the summer and the eastern Caribbean in the winter. Holland's trips were aimed at higher-income travelers--its Caribbean cruises cost 27 percent more than a Carnival cruise of the same length. In addition, as part of the package, Carnival acquired two other companies that Holland America owned: Windstar Sail Cruises and Holland America Westours, which included Westmark Hotels.
The acquisition greatly expanded the company's operations. Windstar Sail Cruises, whose three large passenger sailing ships operated in the South Pacific, Mediterranean, and Caribbean, served the luxury market. Westours operated Westmark's 18 hotels in addition to five dayboats, 240 motor coaches, and eight glass-domed railcars in Alaska and the Canadian Northwest. Already the world's largest cruise operator based on passengers carried, with this single purchase Carnival boosted its number of berths by more than 50 percent. During the year following the acquisition, Carnival carried 579,000 passengers, generating $600 million in revenues and earning profits of $196 million.
In 1989 Carnival completed the Crystal Palace Resort & Casino, a lavish 150-acre resort in the Bahamas, which cost Carnival $250 million to develop. The 1,550-room hotel had many extravagant features, including a $25,000-per-night suite that included a robot that brought bath towels and an aquarium with a stingray. With its 13 restaurants, golf course, tennis courts, and other recreational facilities, the Crystal Palace was the biggest resort in the region. Carnival's 1989 revenues surpassed $1 billion, and the firm earned profits of $193 million while carrying 783,485 passengers.
Change and Growth: 1990-2000
The following year Ted Arison, at the age of 66, stepped down as chairperson of Carnival and was succeeded by his son Micky. Shortly thereafter, the industry's boom of the previous decade began to taper off. The war in the Persian Gulf brought higher fuel and airline costs and deterred tourists. The effects were reflected in Carnival's stock price, which slid from 25 points in June 1990 to 13 points late in the year. At the same time, it became apparent that the Crystal Palace would be an unprofitable venture. At the end of fiscal year 1990, Carnival incurred a $25.5 million loss from the resort and casino operation and not long after began attempting to sell the Crystal Palace. In 1991, with no prospective buyers, Carnival agreed to turn over a large portion of the resort to the Bahamian government, in exchange for cancellation of some of the debt incurred during construction. Carnival took a $135 million write-down on the Crystal Palace for that year.
Still, in 1991 Carnival enjoyed a 26 percent share of the passengers in the $5 billion cruise ship market, with revenues of $1.4 billion. Its average occupancy level stood at 103 percent, well above the industry's average of 90 percent. In April 1991 Carnival signed a $300 million contract for a ship, the Sensation, to be delivered in 1993. In September of the same year the Fascination, to be ready in late 1994, was ordered at a cost of $315 million. In an effort to gain more working capital, Carnival offered 7.85 million Class A common shares for sale in 1991.
The company also entered into an agreement in 1991 to acquire Premier Cruise Lines for $372 million. Though smaller than Carnival, Premier had a lucrative contract with Walt Disney Co. to be the official cruise line for Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The deal fell through, however, when a final agreement could not be reached on the price.
In 1992 Carnival agreed to acquire a percentage of Seabourn Cruise Lines. Seabourn, operated in partnership with Atle Byrnestad, served the ultra-luxury market, running tours to locations such as South America, the Baltics, the Mediterranean, and Southeast Asia. The company also signed a contract for a $330 million ship, the Imagination, to be delivered in the fall of 1995. Perhaps the most impressive ship introduced in the modern era was the Carnival Destiny, the largest passenger ship afloat at 101,000 tons and room for 2,640 people. Its maiden voyage was in 1996.
In 1997 Carnival purchased a 50 percent interest in Costa Cruise Lines, in partnership with Airtours, a travel company. These acquisitions strengthened the company's presence around the world, but especially in the Caribbean. Yet the company's most important acquisition came in 1998 when it purchased a controlling interest in the Cunard White Star Line. Cunard's five ships, including the QE2, the Vistafjord, the Royal Viking Sun, and Sea Goddess I and II catapulted Carnival into the super-luxury cruise line business.
By 1998 the company had changed its legal name to Carnival Corporation, to emphasize the growing diversity within its cruise lines. Yet when every indicator seemed to point the way toward uninterrupted and uneventful prosperity for the company, disaster struck. In July 1998, the cruise ship Ecstasy caught fire after leaving the port in Miami, Florida bound for Newport News with 2,575 passengers on board. Although no one was injured during the fire and evacuation, the ship suffered extensive damage to more than 100 cabins, while heat and smoke damaged adjacent sections of the ship. The precise cause of the fire remained unknown, but the Ecstasy was examined meticulously and refitted in drydock; it re-entered cruising service not long afterward.
Carnival did not suffer financially or from a public relations standpoint because of the fire on the Ecstasy, and it continued to look forward to further growth, building on its name recognition, which was the highest in the industry. Since studies showed that only 5 percent of the 70 million Americans who could afford cruises chose that type of vacation, Carnival seemed to have plenty of room for expansion.
Sailing into the New Millennium
While Carnival dealt with challenges in the early years of the new millennium, it managed to make its largest purchase to date in 2003. Before that, however, the company and its peers found themselves exposed to a slowdown in the travel industry brought on by the terrorist attacks in 2001, the ensuing war in Iraq, and the outbreak of illnesses, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). At the same time, Carnival's deal to purchase timeshare company Fairfield Communities Inc. fell through as its share price fell and profits waned. The company's venture with Star Cruises to acquire NCL Holding, the parent of the Norwegian cruise line, also was canceled.
To make matters worse, Carnival came under fire for covering up illegal dumping practices. During this time period, the cruise industry as a whole felt pressure from environmental groups to clean up their act. According to these groups, sewage from cruise ships contributed to a host of problems, including contamination of the world's oceans. In April 2002, Carnival pled guilty to dumping pollutants into the ocean. It paid an $18 million fine and faced five years of probation.
Meanwhile, the company was preparing to significantly bolster its holdings. In 2001, Carnival set its sights on P&O Princess Cruises plc. P&O, formed by the demerger of The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company in October 2000, had more than 150 years of experience in passenger cruising and had become a leader in the United Kingdom and Australian cruise markets. A bidding war with competitor Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. began in 2002. In the end, P&O shareholders accepted Carnival's $5.67 billion bid.
Upon completion of the deal in 2003, Carnival controlled more than 43 percent of the $11 billion cruise market. It had far surpassed Royal Caribbean, which held a 24 percent share of the market. Carnival Corporation became a dual-listed company with U.K.-based Carnival plc; P&O adopted the Carnival name after the deal. Both companies shared the same executive team, with Micky Arison as chairman and CEO.
Carnival's union with Princess showed early signs of paying off. In 2004, the company achieved record financial results with revenues of $7.68 billion and net income of $1.46 billion. The company launched eight new ships that year including the Queen Mary 2, the world's largest cruise ship; Costa Magica; Carnival's Miracle and Valor; Princess Cruises' Diamond, Sapphire, and Caribbean Princesses; and Holland America Line's Westerdam. The company planned to have an additional 12 ships in operation by 2009.
Revenue and profits climbed even higher in 2005, reaching $8.7 billion and $1.78 billion, respectively. The company claimed that with 123,000 berths and almost 55,000 crewmembers, there were roughly 175,000 people at sea with Carnival at any given time. Indeed, travel enthusiasts would no doubt be sailing with Carnival, the world's largest cruise operator, for years to come.
Principal Subsidiaries
Costa Crociere, S.p.A. (Italy); HAL Antillen N.V. (Netherlands Antilles); Holland America Line N.V. (Netherlands Antilles); Princess Bermuda Holdings Ltd.; Princess Cruise Lines Ltd. (Bermuda); Sitmar International S.R.L. (Panama); Sunshine Shipping Corporation (Bermuda).
Principal Competitors
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.; Star Cruises Ltd.; TUI AG.
Related information about Carnival
A traditional festive period prior to Lent, celebrated in the
Catholic countries of S Europe and their former colonies, and
characterized by feasting, sexual licence, dancing, processions,
masking, satire, and social levelling. Well known examples are
those of Rome, Venice, New Orleans, and Rio de Janeiro. The term is
applied by extension to other similar festivals, such as the
Notting Hill Carnival in London.
:You might also be looking for the circus or funfair. For other meanings, please see Carnival
(disambiguation).
A carnival is a public celebration or
parade combining some
elements of a circus and public street party, generally during the
Carnival Season. Carnival is traditionally a Roman Catholic and, to a
lesser extent, Christian Orthodox celebration. Most Protestant and
non-Christian areas
do not celebrate it, with some Fundamentalist Protestant groups condemning the
celebration, although the word carnival has passed into the
vernacular and taken
on secular meanings in
most areas of the Western world.
The Carnival Season is a holiday period during the two weeks
before the traditional Christian fasting of Lent.
The most commonly known theory states that the name comes from the
Italian
carne- or carnovale, from Latin carnem (meat) + levare
(lighten or raise), literally "to remove the meat" or "stop eating
meat". (Or, of course, farewell to the flesh, letting go of the
earthly or bodily self)citation needed Yet another theory states that it
originates from the Latin
carrus navalis, which was some kind of Greek cart carrying a
statue of a god in a religious procession at the annual festivities
in honor of the god Apollo. Most commonly the season began on Septuagesima, the third
from the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday, but in some places it started as early as
Twelfth
Night, continuing until Lent. The celebration of Carnival ends
on "Mardi Gras"
(French for "Fat
Tuesday", meaning Shrove Tuesday), the day
before Ash
Wednesday, when the rigors of Lent's 40 days of fasting and sacrifice begin. It
sometimes lasts until Pi単ata Weekend, the first Saturday and Sunday
of Lent.
Origins of the Carnival season
One theory is that this festival came from Saturnalia, Saturn's
festival, and Lupercalia.citation needed In the later Roman period, these
festivals were characterized by wanton raillery and unbridled
freedom, and were in a manner a temporary subversion of civil
order. Later on, the processions were devoted to Patron-saints, the
two most prominent being the Virgin Mary or the Saint the local
church was christened to.
In ancient times, carnival was held to begin on 6 January and lasted until
midnight of Shrove
Tuesday. (To this day in Poland, the carnival period lasts from New Year's Day to
Shrove Tuesday, making it the Catholic world's longest.) Some
believe that this period of license represents the kind of
compromise the church tended to make with pagan festivals and that
carnival really represents the Roman Saturnalia. Rome has always been the
headquarters of carnival, and though some popes, notably Clement IX and XI and Benedict XIII, made efforts to stem the tide of Bacchanalian revelry, many of
the popes were great patrons and promoters of
carnival-keeping.
The Catholic Church repeatedly made efforts to check the excesses
of the carnival, especially in Italy. During the sixteenth century
in particular a special form of the Forty Hours Prayer was
instituted in many places on the Monday and Tuesday of Shrovetide,
partly to draw the people away from these dangerous occasions of sin,
partly to make expiation for the excesses committed. By a special
constitution addressed by Benedict XIV to the archbishops and bishops of the
Papal States, and
headed "Super Bacchanalibus", a plenary indulgence was granted in
1747 to those who took part in the Exposition of the Blessed
Sacrament which was to be carried out daily for three days during
the carnival season.
Shrovetide
Shrovetide is the traditional English equivalent of what is
known in the greater part of Southern Europe as the "Carnival"
marking the beginning of Lent. The English term "Shrovetide" (from "to shrive",
or hear confessions) is sufficiently explained by a sentence in the
Anglo-Saxon "Ecclesiastical Institutes" translated from Theodulphus by Abbot Aelfric about A.D.
The only clear fact which does not seem to be adequately accounted
for is the widespread tendency to include the preceding Thursday
(called in French Jeudi gras and in German fetter
Donnerstag -- just as Shrove Tuesday is respectively called
Mardi gras in French
and fetter Dienstag in German, both meaning 'fat Tuesday')
with the Monday and Tuesday which follow Quinquagesima.
Although the observance of Shrovetide in England never ran to the
wild excesses which often marked this period of license in southern
climes, still various sports, and especially games of football, were common in almost
all parts of the country (see Royal Shrovetide
Football), and in the households of the great it was customary
to celebrate the evening of Shrove Tuesday by the performance of
masques and other
plays.
Special celebrations around the world
Places especially noted for elaborate Carnival celebrations
include the longest carnival in the world, for 40 days in Montevideo in Uruguay, Rijeka in Croatia; Strumica in Republic of
Macedonia; Aalborg
in Denmark; 's-Hertogenbosch and
Maastricht in the
Netherlands;
Curacao in the Netherlands
Antilles; Cologne,
D端sseldorf, and
Mainz in Germany's Rhineland; Rio de Janeiro, S達o Paulo,
Salvador,
Recife and Olinda in Brazil; Barranquilla and Pasto in Colombia; Port of Spain in Trinidad; New Orleans (see New Orleans Mardi
Gras), San Francisco, California, Brooklyn, New York
and Mobile,
Alabama in the USA; Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife,and C叩diz in Spain;
and Aalst, Binche, Eupen, Hasselt, and Malmedy in Belgium. The Sydney Gay
and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney, Australia, is a well-known pride parade, goa. The Quebec City
Winter Carnival is the biggest winter-themed carnival in the
world. It depends a lot on good snowfalls and very cold weather, to
keep snowy ski trails in
good condition and the many ice sculptures intact.
Brazil
The main festivity in Brazilian Carnival (and the cultural
manifestation Brazil is
most recognized for around the world) takes place in Rio de Janeiro and
S達o Paulo, with
its samba schools (large, formal social entities with
thousands of members and a definite theme for all each year that
make an impressive resource management demonstration),
blocos (small informal groups also with a definite theme,
usually satirical of the current political situation) and
bandas (samba musical bands usually formed by enthusiasts in
a same neighborhood with traditional day and time to appear).
From Salvador, Bahia
another form of the Brazilian Carnival, the Trio El辿trico,
has spread throughout the country. A trio el辿trico is an
adapted truck, with giant speakers and a platform where musicians
play songs of local genres such as Ax辿 music and Maracatu. It was originally staged by three Salvador
musicians, Armandinho, Dodo & Osmar in the decade of 1950.
Pernambuco has large
Carnival celebrations, including the frevo, typical Pernambuco music.
Caribbean Carnival
Most of the islands in the Caribbean celebrate carnival. Aruba, Cura巽ao, Barbados, and Saint Thomas are also known for lengthy carnival seasons
and large celebrations.
Trinidad
In Trinidad, Carnival is a holiday season that lasts over a
month and culminates in large celebrations in Port of Spain on the
Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday with Dimanche Gras, J'ouvert, and Mas
(masquerade). Music styles associated with Carnival include
soca, calypso, and steel pan.
The annual Carnival steel
pan competition known as the National Panorama competition is
held in the weeks preceding Carnival with the finals held on the
Saturday before the main event. Also on Carnival Monday, Monday
Night Mas is popular in most towns and especially the capital,
where smaller bands participate in competition.
Carnival Tuesday is when the main events of the carnival take
place.
Colombia
Although, it was introduced by the Spaniards and has
incorporated elements from the European cultures, it has managed to syncretise or to
re-interpret traditions that belonged to the African and Amerindian cultures of
Colombia. There is
documentary evidence that the carnival existed in Colombia in the
XVIII century and
had already caused concerned to the colonial authorities, who
censored the celebrations, especially in the mains centers of power
such as Cartagena, Bogot叩 and Popay叩n. The result was the uninterrupted celebration of
carnival festivals in Barranquilla (Barranquilla Carnival), and other villages
along the lower Magdalena River in northern Colombia, and in Pasto, Nari単o (Blacks and Whites
Carnival), in the south of the country. In modern times,
there have been attempts to introduce the carnival in the capital,
Bogot叩, in the early XX
century, but it has always failed to gain the approval of
authorities. The Bogot叩 Carnival has had to wait until the XXI century to be
resurrected, this time, by the authorities of the city.
Greece
Patras in the Peloponnese, holds the
largest annual carnival in Greece, the famous Patras Carnival, with celebrations starting on the
week before the beginning of Greek Orthodox Lent, which falls between February
to March. Other important carnivals in Greece are these in Kozani - (West Macedonia), and in
Xanthi - (East Macedonia and
Thrace).
England
In England Shrove
Tuesday is celebrated as Pancake Day, but apart from the serving of pancakes
and occasional pancake
races and football matches (see Royal Shrovetide
Football), little else of Carnival survived the Reformation. The leading
festivities are Notting Hill Carnival in August (reputedly the world's
largest), and Bridgwater Guy
Fawkes Carnival in November.
Many London
boroughs or former London boroughs hold carnivals in the
summer, usually involving a street parade of floats consisting of
low sided open lorries or other smaller vehicles covered in
decorations, with the participants dressed in costume. Devizes in Wiltshire, for example, has a
week of carnival festivities which includes a street festival and a
traditional confetti battle, concluding with a carnival parade with
bands on the last day. Several have performance and holiday parade
charters (now historical documents) going back many hundreds of
years.
In Somerset, the
West Country
Carnivals are held between August and late November each year.
Circuits and
Carnival Clubs (Societies who build and run floats) put a lot
of effort in to fund raising for the carnivals as well as charity,
and to this end there are collectors with buckets walking in the
procession, and in most places one or two floats used specially for
collecting money, usually allowing the spectators to throw their
contribution onto the float. The Bridgwater carnival is believed to be the largest
illuminated carnival in Europe, if not the world.
German-speaking countries
Germany
Germany, especially
the western part (North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate) is famous for Karneval
celebrations such as parades and costume balls. Whilst these events
are widespread in all big and smaller places of that area such as
Krefeld, M旦nchengladbach,
Duisburg and Cleves , only Cologne, D端sseldorf, Aachen, Mainz, Bonn, Eschweiler, Odenheim are called carnival "strongholds" in the public
media.
In the South of Germany carnival is called Fasching and
especially Munich
developed a special kind of celebration.
In Franconia and some
other parts of Germany a carnival is called Fastnacht, but
they celebrate it like a mix of all the other "carnival
strongholds".
Although the festival and party season in Germany starts as early
as the beginning of January, the actual carnival week starts on the
Thursday ("Altweiberfastnacht") before Ash Wednesday. Officially,
the carnival session,
which is also called the Fifth Season, begins each year on
11 November at 11:11
a.m. and finishes on Ash Wednesday.
Rhineland
In the Rhineland as
the most typical German Carnival region, festivities developed
especially strongly, since it was a way to express subversive
anti-Prussian and
anti-French thoughts in times of occupation, through parody and
mockery. Modern carnival there began in 1823 with the founding of a Carnival Club in
Cologne.
Today all Carnival Clubs are assembled in the German Carnival
Association. This Shows are public congress in revue's way of the
carnival-council called Elferrat.
The main event, however, is the street carnival that takes place in
the period between the Thursday before Ash Wednesday and Ash
Wednesday.
Southern Germany, Switzerland, West Austria
The "Swabian-Alemannic" carnival
only begins on January
6 (Epiphany/Three Kings Day). Fastnacht is held in Baden-W端rttemberg, parts of Bavaria, and Alsace. Switzerland and Vorarlberg, in Austria, also hold this celebration. Mask of an "ugly
Percht"
Austria
In Austria and
southern Bavaria,
Carnival is called Fasching and is generally celebrated in
several types of events.
First, there are parties called Faschingsfest or
Gschnas, where people dress up in funny costumes, similar to
what Americans do
at Halloween. Children
are often encouraged to come to school in their costume on the
Faschingsdienstag (= Mardi Gras), and even some adults come
to their workplace in a costume.
Second, January and February are the high season for ballroom dancing, with
a large number of balls talking place especially in the Hofburg and other palaces in
Vienna, including the
famous Vienna
Opera Ball.
Third, in many towns and villages the local Faschingsgilden
(Carnival Guilds) meet and offer their comedy programs to the
public. Other than in Germany, where similar events tend to be ritualistic and
ceremonial (the German events, even though they were sometimes
broad coast on Austrian TV in the past, are increasingly considered
boring by Austrians), the Austrian events focus on stand-up comedy and
political satire. The
most famous event is the Villacher Fasching in Villach, Carinthia, which
draws a TV audience of about 25% of the Austrian population every
year.
Netherlands
In the Netherlands, the last day of Carnival, the day before
Ash Wednesday, is
held exactly 40 days (not counting Sundays) before Easter. In the
province of Noord
Brabant, carnival is known as Vastenavond (literally "Fasting
evening") or as "Carnaval". Most popular and even renowned places
where Carnival is held (although every city, town or village
celebrates it) are 's-Hertogenbosch, Bergen op Zoom and Breda. Carnival
here has been celebrated ever since medieval times and was
modernized after WW
II, Bergen op
Zoom even continued to celebrate it indoors. However, it is the
most southern province of The Netherlands, Limburg, where many Dutch go to celebrate it.
Maastricht is famous
for its Carnival which mimics Italian, mostly Venician, traditions, culture and costumes. The
Krabbegatse Carnival shares very little traditions and folklore
with the rest of the Netherlands and they have celebrated it in
their specific way ever since 1882.
Honduras
In La Ceiba in
Honduras carnival is
held on the third Saturday of every May to commemorate San Isidro, and is the
largest in Central
America.
Italy
The carnival in Venice
was first recorded in 1268.
traditionally people were allowed to wear them between the festival
of Santo Stefano (St. Stephen's Day, December 26) at the start of the carnival season
and midnight of Shrove Tuesday. As masks were also allowed during
Ascension and from
October 5 to Christmas, people could spend
a large proportion of the year in disguise www.carnivalofvenice.com/argomento.asp?cat=13&lang=en.
Mask makers (mascareri) enjoyed a special position in
society, with their own laws and their own guild.
In 1797 Venice became part
of the Austrian-held Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia when Napoleon signed
the Treaty of
Campo Formio. The Austrians took control of the city on
January 18, 1798 and it fell into a decline
which also effectively brought carnival celebrations to a halt for
many years. It was not until a modern mask shop was founded in the
1970s that a revival of old traditions began.
Carnival is celebrated throughout the rest of Italy, too. It starts in
mid-January or on February 2 according to local traditions, and ends on
Fat Tuesday, the day
before Ash
Wednesday. It is also frequent to celebrate Fat Thursday.
In Milan the Carnival
lasts four more days, ending on the Saturday after Ash Wednesday.
Others very important Carnivals of Italy are Acireale, Foiano della Chiana, Putignano, Sciacca,Viareggio.
Poland
In Poland the
traditional way of celebrating the Carnival is kulig, a horse-drawn sleigh
ride through the snow-covered countryside. The Polish Carnival
Season includes Fat
Thursday (Polish: T?usty Czwartek) - a day for eating
p?czki - and
?ledzi坦wka (Shrove Tuesday), or Herring Day (herring is a traditional Polish
appetizer for drinking vodka).
Spain
.
At Santa Cruz de Tenerife are some of the most typical and famous
parties of the cities, and are not only well known in Spain, but also has a worldwide
fame, it is famous for thematic costumes, and the election of the
Carnival Queen among the prettiest teens. There is also, a famous
parade of Drag-Queens, know as reinonas.
Sitges Carnival is the
most important and crazy Carnival in Spanish Autonomous community
of Catalonia. Some
forty-odd floats with more than 2.500 participants leave a
jam-packed Sitges completely breathless.
In Tarragona is found
one of the most complete ritual sequences of the Catalan carnivals,
so local and so universal that this is the synthesis that makes it
special. On Saturday, the main parade takes place, one of the most
multitudinous in Catalonia and in Spain, both for the number of participants as for the
public. There are masked groups, zoomorphic figures, music and
percussion bands, not to forget the traditional groups with
fireworks (the devils,
the dragon, the ox, the female dragon).
Carnival of C叩diz
C叩diz, is known for
having the funniest people in Spain, everyone lives the Carnival and wears a costume,
which many times is related to the most polemical news, such as the
bird flu epidemic in
2006, during which many people have seen disguised as chickens.
They use to have also a more elaborated polyphony, being easily recognizable by the
typical countertenor voice.
Funfairs
Many carnivals also have an associated funfair (or fun fair) with a number of amusement rides and side
stalls. In America a smaller or non-permanent funfair is called a
carnival in contrast to the permanent amusement park.
See also Circus (performing art).
Abad叩
An abad叩 is a shirt that you buy that allows you to "play" or follow
inside the ropes the trucks that the carnival bands play on in
Salvador and
other cities.
See also
- Fair
- Costume
party
- Mardi
Gras
- List of
festivals
- New
Orleans Mardi Gras
- Brazilian
Carnival
-
Carnival in
Colombia
- Bogot叩's Carnival
- Barranquilla's Carnival
- Carnival of Blacks and Whites
- Caribbean
Carnival
- Carnival in Rijeka
- Carnival in Bridgwater - the town held its 400th in November
2005.
- careto
References
- McGowan, Chris and Pessanha, Ricardo.
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