North Eastern Brazil is home to a Carnival celebration different from the well-known Carnival in Rio de Janeiro or anywhere else in the world for that matter.

It begins in the city of Recife in the state of Pernambuco and spreads to other parts of the state.

The celebration lasts for five days.

Funding for In the Americas with David Yetman , was provided by Agnese Haury.

♪ music ♪ ♪ music ♪ Pernambuco is tiny, as Brazilian states go about the size of the state of Maine.

In Brazil, it's known for its Carnival, lengthy, noisy, colorful.

And everyone is invited to participate.

This is the opening ceremony of Carnival in Recife.

It's at late at night.

There are hundred thousand or so people here.

Unending fireworks going off on the reef just down on the ocean.

Explosion of joy at the beginning of Carnival.

After the beginning of Carnival in Recife, it moves inland to Bezerros, Nazaré da Mata and finally back to the coast in Olinda.

Carnival in Pernambuco, Brazil Recife was one of the first cities in Brazil to be colonized and we had a very strong Portuguese, Dutch, Indian and African colonization.

So all these people brought lots of music, food and different things and colors to Pernambuco.

And we mixed this all to the Carnival of Pernambuco.

Carnival in Pernambuco has more than twenty different poles, events or places spread out over the five days.

Each of them has a different way of dancing, of dressing, or showing Carnival.

For example here in Recife, it's more at night.

People go with their families.

In Olinda, it's a street Carnival where the giant puppets are the hosts of the Carnival.

You see them all around.

The giant puppets are giant figures that goes up and down the streets in Olinda.

Nazaré da Mata is one of the finest Carnival of the world I think, because people that work the whole year on the sugar cane fields, built their costume throughout the year and during Carnival is when they dress up as Maracatu Caboclos de lança, that beautiful colorful figures.

This is Caboclos de lança.

They're coming from the country side.

You can see them way up...look they're going around and around up there.

As you can see they have flowers and they put one flower here in their mouth and they walk like for five hours.

So they actually start doing this like five or six hours ago to be here now.

To be here right now.

The main instrument is the maracatu.

So it's basically percussion.

Yes and they always have a couple, which always demonstrates where they come from.

So there's a woman and a man with costumes from Africa.

And now women try to be more proud of the maracatu, so they want to have maracatu only with women.

So it's a feminist maracatu?

Yes.

Well, good for them.

(Portuguese) This is a democratic carnival.

It doesn't cost you any money.

You can participate in one or all of the Carnivalistic expressions.

The blocos and troças without having to pay anyone.

You just choose.

The opening ceremony lasts through the night.

It merged seamlessly into the morning of the second day of Carnival.

It's the Rooster of the Dawn, Galo da Madrugada.

Everyone knows about it, there are songs written about it.

There are dances to it.

The story goes that it was associated with a little troop that participated in Carnival and that troop got more and more attention until nowadays, the biggest bloco, the biggest group of thousands of people have it as their symbol and it has come to symbolize the entirety of Carnival here.

More than a million people will participate in this parade, in this festivity around Galo.

In Rio, you sit and watch the great parade of bands.

Here, you participate.

For me to participate, off goes the hat.

So now, I'm going native.

Carnival time.

The dance that these young people are doing is called the frevo, it's a specialized dance from the Recife area.

It looks as though they're just kicking, it's a step that takes a lot of practice, a lot of energy.

(Portuguese) People flock to the Saturday of Carnival.

It is the biggest day, what is known as the Galo da Madrugada.

The whole idea is for you to play, to transform yourself into a child again, to live out a childhood fantasy, whether it is a superhero, a clown, a famous actor/actress.

It is really a theatrical street performance.

I'm not sure what it is here that I am jesting with, but they can't talk because they have a big heavy mask on.

The street is packed, but there's a tide of humanity that is engulfing this place.

I came up here to get a view, now I can't get out.

So I'll just have to suffer the beauty of it all.

The noise level here is so loud, I have to shout.

There's well over a million people, all very happy, all talking at the same time, plus a bunch of loud speakers.

The precession itself is five miles long.

It consists of about 25 what they call, blocos, that's big groups of people.

Each one of them has what they call Trios elétricos,which is a large truck that is carrying loud speakers, instruments, all kinds of amplifiers and a lot of people and musicians.

They move along and try to excite the crowd, make sure that they are the best act of all.

If you want to join one of them, you're free to, you can go down the street and just follow right along or you could even go in front of them.

It's a long day, it's probably seven hours in total length.

The blocos are expensive to operate and so they often have commercial interests that kick in money to support them.

Some of them are sponsored by public causes, non profit groups without a special political point to make but all of them try to engage the crowd and the most remarkable thing of all is the fact that there are 20 or so carnival songs.

Everyone here seems to know every word, every note.

They can sing along in unison.

This precession in Recife is just one expression of Carnival time in the state of Pernambuco and in Brazil.

After eight hours or so of intense partying, we escape from the throng to the town of Bezerros about 100 kilometers inland.

There, I meet my friend Tacila, a native North Easterner and a Carnival fanatic.

It's not one happy and one sad.

They're both happy.

They're all happy.

Well, in a way that's Brazil, right?

Brazil's a happy place.

Bezerros is the land of papangu.

You don't show anything and you can choose whatever you want to put, like a mask on.

So this is really traditional, comes from the 19th century.

Papangu?

Papangu.

It means the papa for angu, which is an oatmeal thing.

They would go to houses asking for oatmeal?

Yeah, and the kids say "papa, angu" because they always eat angu.

So that's why they're named papangus.

Papa, angu.

Papangu, oh well that's easy.

Everybody comes on Sunday to Bezzeros.

You think I should try this one?

I like this one.

Oh my god that's gonna be hot.

Just fit it.

Do I fit?

You look good!

You just have to cover your hands and you're ready.

(Portuguese) Papangu is usually a masked individual.

The custom originated many years ago when it wasn't socially acceptable for upper class ladies to be seen at a street party.

So they wore masks.

Over the years, a tradition of wearing distinct masks evolved and the presence of papangus became a cultural stamp of the town Bezerros.

Ah this is really not a take off on Halloween.

They look like it, but these costumes are original.

This ceremony began long before Halloween was a custom.

They buy Halloween masks, sometimes use them, but this is completely different.

He said like the hardest part is the mask part because it's really heavy.

The rest is fine.

Oh yeah cause you can't breathe.

This human powered vehicle says the best-known land of the papangus.

As you can see they cover...

They cover their hands.

Yeah, they cover their hands and everything.

They don't want to be recognized.

So they've got a mask but there's something sewn over the mask.

This is the real angu?

The real angu, it's coconut, butter and corn.

The kids would go door to door saying 'do you have any angu, pa, angu' and from that came papangu.

The artist here has made each of these masks from newspaper and glue and formed them.

These are very similar to what they were a century ago.

The unique thing that I see about them is they're all smiling.

There's not a frown among them and that's the nature of the papangus.

From what I can tell, there's no procession here.

You just come and hang out but they have a competition for the best costume, is that it?

Yeah.

So this competition is one at a time.

They're calling them up by their number.

It's just one individual costume.

You'll have to tell me what this represents cause I can't really understand.

Yeah, did you see the old lady in the chair?

Yeah.

It's trying to represent you know...

They have to carry her up there.

Even if you're really old you can go to the carnival.

She's trying to represent the carnival and the real São Francisco together.

See?

So you can see the fish on her tail.

Yeah.

That's supposed to be the original, they way they looked.

They've got paper bags.

They don't have any fancy costumes.

No.

No.

Those are paper bags for the sugar or corn or rice.

Oh they weren't paper then, they're actually a fiber bag.

And yet they're very drab, it's not really highly colorful.

And did you see the one, they're all in yellow and black.

Oh yeah, they're giving candy away to the judges.

Yeah.

You cannot do this.

They're trying to bribe the judges?

I think so.

The judges are taking the candy, I guess it must be okay.

Yeah, and did you see the two, I think it's like two papangus.

I think there's three colors, it's black and blue and red.

It's so beautiful.

Well, they keep on coming don't they?

This is a workshop in the town of Bezerros for people who want to come here and learn how to paint masks on their own.

Bezerros is known throughout Brazil as a center of mask making.

It's a curious fact about people all over the world that they like to make masks.

When you put on a mask, it changes your personality.

Some places specialize in them.

There are some masks in the world that are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and these, here in the town of Bezerros are certainly much more valuable than those that come off the presses, the automation of the factories in the Unites States or China.

It's a tribute to artistic creativity that the masks becomes something of lasting value.

From the city of Bezerros, we travel north into the agricultural heartland and the nearby town of Nazare da Mata This is a sugarcane field about 30 miles from the coast of North Eastern Brazil.

About 500 years ago this was rainforest but for the last four centuries at least it's been what you see now, sugar cane.

The Portuguese imported millions of slaves, mostly to cut the sugar cane.

Since that time, the technology for harvesting the cane has been basically unchanged.

It's still back, back, back back, cut, cut, cut.

It's dangerous.

It's back breaking.

It's boring but the workers here once a year have a chance to put together a ceremony that is very, very different.

(Portuguese) Maracatu is a celebration put on by sugarcane workers.

They struggle seven days a week to save enough money to create their costumes and present the wonders of rural Maracatu during carnival.

(Portuguese) We perform twice.

Today in the morning and tomorrow night.

They call this costume, this representation, Caboclos de lança.

The lance carriers, they are extremely proud of their costumes, as they should be.

They walk all the way in from various small towns, all the way around this circumference of the city.

Everyone in the North East agrees that this is the most colorful Lentin festivity in all of the region.

(Portuguese) This celebration originated in slave times.

These are ancient traditions sewn in the sugar cane fields.

To my father, and his father and so on.

This is what Maracatu is all about.

We've been doing these dances for more than a century.

We're very proud to perform in front of the crowds that come here.

It takes a month to put together this head dress.

We create camiza de oro here in Nazaré da Mata.

The themes here are all very local, very historic and part of the community.

Each group that comes in, there are a bunch of them, represents their own town.

And it's their own pride.

(Portuguese) My name is bacalhau meaning codfish.

We put years of hard work cutting sugar cane, cleaning fields, selling what little we have all to continue this tradition.

We prepare the costumes.

We gather branches to build the frame.

We attach a cow bell.

Then we bundle it all together and attach the different shaped sequence.

We tie this carpet like curtain together and throw it over the serom and then we have the Caboclos de lança.

These Caboclos have rose stems in their mouths, spears in their hands.

The lances are decorated in colorful fabric stripes or fitas.

Sometimes we sell everything we have and even go days without eating so we can make our costumes.

Two people aren't enough, 10 are not enough.

20 are not enough.

With fewer than thirty people, we cannot perform properly.

We need a king, a queen, jokers, aces.

All those figures from the royal African court.

Sabuma, taroe, queca, trombone.

These are all the instruments played, while the vocalist up on the stage, tells his story.

All the while, giving directions to the dance performers.

I am the mestre bacalhau.

As the afternoon wanes, we returned to Recife in time for another pole, another event, this time in historic downtown Recife.

We're well into the 4th night of Carnival in Recife and the party is still going on.

This is a very different social situation tonight.

These are called lyric blocos.

The idea is that the grandparents will explain to the children, this is what Carnival is all about and the children well then learn and pass this on to the next generation.

There's good energy here, but it's not the craziness we saw a few days ago.

(Portuguese) The lyrical Carnival shows us the romantic side of this celebration.

Instead of using brass instruments that characterize the frevo, here it is customary to celebrate with lyrics.

The participants tend to be an older crowd that wishes to perpetuate the good old days, the old style Carnival.

You can see here, you have Grandmas with their grandsons.

And you can spend the whole night here with your whole family.

This is within the lyrical, they call it the lyric blocks.

Yeah, little kids like 2 or 3 years old, try to dance fervo.

Yeah.

So they just start to realize how important is the Carnival.

She's got on Dad's shoulders.

It's family night.

She doesn't know but she already loves Carnival.

This is, I don't want to say family fun, but it's Brazilian family fun.

The kind of celebration that everybody can participate in.

It's joyful.

It's energetic.

It's not without alcohol, but everyone seems to incorporate that in.

So the family comes here, asserts the community and has a great time.

The children learn to do it and they will be able to perpetuate it in the future.

I managed to catch a few hours of sleep, then left early for the last pull, the final event of Carnival.

Ask any Brazilian where you should go for Carnival, one of the places they will always mention is Olinda.

It's only a few miles north of Recife, but it is a completely different place.

It's up on a hill, where the wind comes.

It's got colonial architecture.

It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but it has it's own distinct flavor of Carnival unmatched anywhere else in Brazil.

(Portuguese) People including myself travel from other states to enjoy a truly traditional Carnival experience.

They can only be found in Pernambuco and Olinda.

Because Olinda is a UNESCO world heritage site, the city fathers and mothers and the state government have gone to great lengths to preserve the architecture and the cobble streets.

This particular design with a parallel row of blocks is called a parallepipido found here in Olinda.

The architecture goes back for several hundred years involving both the Portuguese and the Dutch.

(Portuguese) The giant puppets of Olinda began their history in the 1920's.

They were created as a way to pay respects to friends and family that had passed away.

For instance, if a popular person or loved one from a neighborhood dies then his or her best friends create a giant puppet.

Then the dead person's image can continue celebrating Carnival in another form.

This custom has expanded over the years to include famous social figures, such as soccer players, actors, politicians and celebrities.

Streets are really, really narrow and you'll feel like you're in a really small town.

I think you are.

Oh yes.

And you also can feel the fervor like on the streets.

It's a law here and during the Carnival, you don't have any other music instead of fervor .

I see and it can't be amplified.

Yeah it has to be troça, which is I don't like five or eight people.

A small band.

Mhm.

And there we go.

It sounds like fervor to me.

The puppets are heavy and the bearers get very tired, so do I.

After five days of Galo da Madrugada, papangus, Colbocs de Lanza and even the laid back old time Carnival.

I'm ready to rest up for next year in Pernambuco, Brazil.

Mexico retains a mixture of sophisticated, cosmopolitan cities and isolated, traditional Indian towns.

Once each year, these towns celebrate their ancient roots, also with the blessing of their contemporary priest.

Cuetzalan in the state of Puebla is one such place.

Join us next time In the Americas , with me, David Yetman.

[music] [music] Funding for In the Americas with David Yetman , was provided by Agnese Haury.

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