157 Fun Facts About Carnival

The word 'carnival' is usually traced to an old Italian phrase meaning what?

Remove meat is the sense of the old Italian carnelevare: Lent's fasting rules banned meat, so the days before Ash Wednesday were the last chance to eat it up.

Which 'Brazilian Bombshell' starred in the 1936 musical Alô Alô Carnaval before taking her fruit hats to Hollywood?

Carmen Miranda's fruit hats grew out of the 'baiana' look she first wore in a 1939 Brazilian film, modelled on the dress of poor Afro-Brazilian women in Bahia.

Mardi Gras, the name of carnival's last day, is French for what?

Fat Tuesday was the last chance to eat rich, fatty food before the Lenten fast; French butchers marked the season by parading a fattened ox, the Boeuf Gras, through the streets.

Which Disney princess's story comes to a head at a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade?

Tiana's friend Charlotte counts as a princess only until midnight, because her father has been crowned king of Mardi Gras for the day, a deadline that drives the film's finale.

Which Belgian town's carnival is famous for its Gilles, performers in wax masks and wooden clogs?

Binche's Gilles, hundreds of local men, go through a ceremonial dressing rite, then dance through the town to drums on Shrove Tuesday until fireworks close the day in the Grand Place.

What is the frenetic UNESCO-listed carnival music-and-dance style of Recife and Olinda called?

Frevo's acrobatic steps come from capoeira fighters; when police cracked down on them, they are said to have swapped their knives for umbrellas and passed off their moves as dance.

Which South American country's Diablada carnival became a UNESCO Masterpiece of Intangible Heritage in 2001?

Bolivia's Carnival of Oruro began as an Andean festival that the Spanish banned in the 17th century; it carried on disguised as a Christian rite, with the Diablada devil dance at its centre.

The word 'Lent', the fast that carnival leads up to, comes from an Old English word for which season?

Spring: Old English 'lencten' meant springtime, literally the 'lengthening' of the days, and Dutch still calls the season 'lente'; in English the word narrowed to the fast that falls then.

Whose army ended the Venetian Republic in 1797, after which the city's carnival was outlawed?

Napoleon's Italian campaign ended the 1,100-year-old republic in May 1797; the carnival was then outlawed, masks and all, and came back only in 1979.

Legend traces Venice's carnival to 1162, when crowds danced to celebrate what?

A military victory over the Patriarch of Aquileia is the legendary start; he was freed for a yearly tribute of a bull and twelve pigs, which Venetians slaughtered in public at carnival for centuries.

How did Venetian noblewomen keep the strapless moretta mask on?

A bitten button held the oval moretta on: gripped between the teeth, it left its wearer unable to speak, and the mask was also known as the servetta muta, the mute servant.

The long-beaked mask that is among Venice's most recognisable carnival disguises copies the protective outfit of which profession?

Plague doctors' beaks, first described in the 17th century, were packed with aromatic herbs or perfume, on the belief that the scent would keep out the 'bad air' blamed for the disease.

Confetti takes its name from the Italian word for which treats, once thrown at carnival parades?

Sugared almonds are confetti in Italian; such confections, often sugar-coated seeds, were flung at carnival parades, and when bits of paper took over, English kept the old name, while Italians call the paper kind coriandoli.

Cologne's 'fifth season' is declared open on 11 November at precisely what time?

11 minutes past 11 on 11 November opens the season in the Rhineland's carnival cities, but the fun is then shelved through Advent and Christmas and only picks up again in the New Year.

What greeting is traditionally shouted throughout Cologne's carnival?

Kölle Alaaf is given three times at carnival shows, the second and third calls swapping 'Kölle' for the performer and the hosting society; Düsseldorf's cry is 'Helau', and Aachen has its own 'Oche Alaaf'.

In Cologne's ruling trio, the Dreigestirn, who traditionally portrays the Jungfrau (maiden)?

A man dressed as a woman always plays the Jungfrau, bar one forced break: under Nazi rule the party ordered that a real woman take the role, and men took it back after the war.

Cologne's carnival ends by burning the Nubbel, a straw figure blamed for what?

Revellers' sins are pinned on the Nubbel, the straw man that hangs over the pubs all carnival; in a mock trial the crowd shouts that he is to blame, and he burns before Ash Wednesday dawns.

At Cologne's Rose Monday parade, the crowd shouts 'Kamelle!' to beg for what from the floats?

Sweets fly from the floats by the hundreds of tons, along with soft toys and other small gifts; walking escorts beside each float keep children from darting under the wheels after them.

In the entrudo, the rowdy forerunner of Rio's carnival, revellers threw what at passers-by?

Water, by the bucketful or sealed inside scented wax 'lemons'; the authorities spent years trying to ban the rough game in the 19th century, until masked balls and parades took its place.

Which samba school took its record 22nd Rio championship in 2017, ending a 33-year drought?

Portela's 22nd title was its first since 1984; weeks later a scoring appeal made Mocidade joint champion, so the 2017 crown ended up shared.

Rio's Sambadrome, the parade stadium for the samba schools, was designed by which architect?

Oscar Niemeyer drew the Sambadrome for governor Leonel Brizola, who wanted a permanent home for the parades; it opened in 1984, and Niemeyer, by then over 100, attended its reopening after a 2012 renovation.

At the 2016 Olympics, Rio's Sambadrome hosted the marathon finish and which other sport?

Archery shot along the parade runway after a rebuild for the Games: the old brewery beside it was imploded in 2011 so that new stands could go up, finally giving the avenue the symmetry its architect had planned.

Which 1959 film, set during Rio's carnival, won both the Palme d'Or and the Oscar for best foreign-language film?

Black Orpheus moves the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to a Rio favela at carnival time; its songs by Jobim and Luiz Bonfá, among them 'Manhã de Carnaval', became bossa nova classics.

At Salvador's carnival, what is a trio elétrico?

A truck carrying a live band: it began in 1950 with Dodô and Osmar playing amplified music from an old Ford, and a third musician who joined them the next year gave the 'trio' its name.

Which pop star shot a 1996 video with Salvador's carnival drum group Olodum?

Michael Jackson filmed 'They Don't Care About Us' with Olodum's drummers in Salvador's old town, and also in a Rio favela where politicians worried about the city's image had tried in vain to keep him out.

J'ouvert, the paint-and-mud street party that opens Trinidad's carnival, takes its name from French words meaning what?

Break of day, from 'jour ouvert': it starts in the dark before Carnival Monday dawns, with revellers smeared in mud, oil and paint.

Trinidad's carnival dates back to the 1780s and an influx of immigrants from where?

French West Indies planters brought masked balls to Trinidad from 1783; Africans on the island, shut out of them, are said to have staged small masquerades of their own, mocking their masters' parties.

Which torch-lit festival, recalling the fighting of plantation fires, fed into Trinidad's carnival?

Canboulay was the target of an 1881 police crackdown in Port of Spain that turned into riots when revellers fought back; the confrontation is re-enacted there each Carnival Friday.

Which traditional Trinidad carnival character is a stilt dancer of African origin?

The Moko jumbie, a towering stilt walker of West African origin, was believed to protect villages by seeing evil coming from far away.

From the 1940s, Trinidad's steelpans were hammered out of which discarded objects?

Oil drums, some left behind by US forces in the Second World War, became the raw material for tuned pans; before that, the island's metal bands had beaten biscuit tins, dustbin lids and frying pans.

The Mardi Gras motto 'Laissez les bons temps rouler' means what?

Let the good times roll: the Louisiana French phrase is a word-for-word copy of the English saying rather than an old Cajun one, and one lifelong New Orleans writer says locals never really say it.

Notting Hill Carnival, Europe's largest street festival, draws around two million people to London over which weekend?

The August bank holiday weekend hosts it, with around two million people turning out over the two days.

After the 1976 Notting Hill Carnival ended in street battles, Britain's police pressed to be issued with which equipment?

Riot shields were the demand: caught without protection, officers had grabbed dustbin lids and milk crates to defend themselves, and more than 100 of them were taken to hospital.

Toronto's Caribbean Carnival began in 1967 as a gift from the Caribbean community marking what?

Canada's Centennial was the occasion: Toronto's Caribbean community planned the festival from a disused firehall on Bathurst Street, and only in 1968 decided that it should become an annual event.

Which US city claims the country's oldest official Carnival celebration, begun in 1703?

Mobile, then capital of French Louisiana, held its first Mardi Gras in 1703, fifteen years before New Orleans was even founded.

Since 1956, which snack has been a signature throw from parade floats in Alabama's oldest carnival city?

MoonPies, the marshmallow-and-graham sandwich from Chattanooga, became Mobile's signature throw because they were soft enough to toss safely into the crowds.

Which secret society, founded in 1856, is the oldest of New Orleans's Mardi Gras krewes?

The Mistick Krewe of Comus paraded by torchlight from 1857 until 1991, then left the streets rather than certify, as a new city ordinance required, that it did not discriminate.

New Orleans's Black masking groups, in hand-beaded feathered suits, are known as Mardi Gras what?

Indians: the groups say the name honours Native Americans who sheltered people escaping slavery; a Big Chief's hand-beaded suit can take a full year and thousands of dollars to make.

The Krewe of Zulu is famous for handing out which prized decorated throw?

Coconuts brought injury lawsuits, and in 1987 Zulu could not renew its insurance and had to stop; a 1988 Louisiana law, the 'Coconut Bill', lifted the liability, and they are now handed over, not thrown.

New Orleans's Carnival season opens each year on which Christian feast?

Epiphany, or Twelfth Night, on 6 January starts the season: king cakes go on sale, the krewes begin their balls, and that night one krewe rides the streetcars to announce carnival.

The first carriers of the flambeaux, the flaming torches that light New Orleans night parades, were whom?

The first flambeaux carriers were enslaved people and free men of colour; spectators have long tossed coins to the carriers as they dance and spin the torches.

What small object is traditionally hidden inside a Mardi Gras king cake?

A plastic baby became the rule after McKenzie's bakery took a salesman's surplus of tiny porcelain dolls in the 1940s and baked them in; earlier cakes had hidden a bean, a pecan or a ring.

By Mardi Gras custom, whoever finds the trinket hidden in a king cake is expected to do what?

Bring the next cake, or host the party where it is served: in the mid-20th century friends met weekly through carnival, and whoever found the token hosted the following week.

In the Mardi Gras colour scheme, purple stands for what?

Justice is purple's meaning, with green for faith and gold for power; the colours date from 1872, but the meanings were only announced twenty years later, with the 1892 parade 'Symbolism of Colors'.

The Gilles, the clown-like stars of a Belgian carnival, throw what to (and sometimes at) the crowd?

Oranges from a Gille count as a gift that brings good luck, so throwing one back is an insult; even so, some residents seal their windows against the barrage.

The huge hats worn by the Gilles on Shrove Tuesday afternoon are adorned with the feathers of which bird?

Ostrich plumes make the hats so costly that the Gilles hire them, with the costume, from specialist renters; UNESCO notes the heavy financial commitment the role demands.

In Ivrea's carnival food fight, townspeople on foot pelt teams riding in what?

Carts stand for the tyrant's troops: nine teams on foot pelt the crews riding in them, re-enacting a legendary revolt against a hated medieval lord.

The long-nosed, floppy-eared Marimonda is a favourite costume at Barranquilla's carnival, held in which country?

Colombia's Caribbean port of Barranquilla was a colonial trading hub where European, African and Indigenous cultures met, and its carnival blends all three; the Marimonda looks part monkey, part elephant.

Barranquilla's carnival ends with mock mourners weeping over Joselito, who has 'died' of what?

Four days of partying finish off Joselito, who is said to come to life on Carnival Saturday and 'die' tired and drunk on the Tuesday; wailing 'widows', sometimes men in dresses, follow his coffin through the streets.

The Carnival of Oruro is held in honour of the Virgen del Socavón, the Virgin of the what?

Mineshaft is what socavón means: Oruro grew as a mining town, and the dancers' procession is a pilgrimage to the Virgin's sanctuary, which legend links to an image of her found in a silver mine.

Bonhomme, the snowman mascot of the Quebec Winter Carnival, wears a red toque and what else?

An arrowed sash, the ceinture fléchée, was wound round winter coats in old Quebec to keep out the cold, and fur traders wore it to guard against back strain and hernias.

Which fortified-wine drink, often sipped from hollow plastic canes, is the traditional warmer at the Quebec Winter Carnival?

Caribou is said to take its name from a colonial-era mix of whisky and caribou blood that hunters and loggers drank against the cold; today's version uses wine and spirits instead.

Which French Riviera city has held a carnival since at least 1294, today a fortnight of giant satirical floats?

Nice's parade took its modern form in 1873, when a local committee was set up to promote the town and draw wealthy winter visitors, turning the carnival into a staged show of floats and masquerades.

In which James Bond film does the steel-toothed Jaws stalk 007 through the streets during Rio's carnival?

Moonraker takes Bond from Venice to Rio, where Jaws attacks during the carnival and again on the Sugarloaf cable car, before the trail leads up the Amazon and into space.

Basel's Fasnacht begins at 4 am when what happens?

Lights go out across the old town: the city utility cuts the public lighting and the Cliques march by the glow of their painted lanterns; exactly 72 hours later the carnival is over.

Basel's Cliques march through the old town playing the Basler drum and which other instrument?

Piccolo players and drummers make up each Clique, which picks a news story to mock and parades it on a painted lantern; UNESCO likens the carnival to a huge satirical magazine.

By what name is the carnival season known in Munich and Vienna?

Fasching is the word across Bavaria and Austria; in Munich it ends with the stallholders of the Viktualienmarkt food market dancing in costume on Shrove Tuesday.

Denmark's Fastelavn game of battering a candy-filled barrel is named after which animal, once shut inside it?

A cat: a live one was once shut in the barrel, and beating it out and chasing it off stood for driving away evil; the cat usually got away, and today the barrel holds candy.

Which 1969 film follows two bikers crossing America to reach New Orleans in time for Mardi Gras?

Easy Rider's Wyatt and Billy join the Mardi Gras parades and take LSD in a French Quarter cemetery; those New Orleans scenes were shot on 16mm, the rest of the film on 35mm.

The Busójárás, a UNESCO-listed carnival of masked busós in Mohács, takes place in which country?

Mohács is in southern Hungary; legend says townspeople hiding in the swamps under Ottoman rule scared the Turks away in monstrous masks, and UNESCO listed the Busójárás in 2009.

The Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, held each February or March, takes place in which Spanish archipelago?

The Canary Islands kept this carnival going through Franco's ban by renaming it the 'Winter Festivals'; the old name came back in 1976, once the dictatorship was over.

Which singer's 1987 Tenerife carnival concert, attended by 250,000, entered the Guinness Book of Records?

Celia Cruz sang with Billo's Caracas Boys to some 250,000 dancers, a record crowd for a concert in an open-air square; in 2004 the carnival took her as its theme in tribute.

Which figure, usually a local resident, presides over Goa's carnival?

King Momo orders his subjects to eat, drink and make merry; he is a 1960s arrival, added when a Goan musician remodelled the old Portuguese-era festival on Rio's to draw tourists.

Which avenue of Chicago's 1893 World's Fair gave its name to the rides-and-sideshow strip at American fairs?

The Midway Plaisance, at the edge of the grounds, held the fair's rides and sideshows and took over $4 million; a showman from it soon put a travelling version on the road, and 'midway' stuck.

Which 1978 film musical reaches its happy ending at a high-school graduation carnival?

Grease ends at Rydell High's graduation carnival, where Danny turns up as a clean-cut letterman just as Sandy arrives in black leather, each having changed to win the other.

What became of the original Ferris Wheel after the 1904 St Louis fair?

Dynamited for scrap in May 1906: moving the giant wheel yet again would have cost too much, so a wrecking company blew it up where it stood and hauled the steel away.

The 'Shrove' in Shrove Tuesday comes from an old English verb meaning to do what?

Hear confession: to 'shrive' was to hear someone's sins and absolve them, so people went to be shriven before Lent, then used up their eggs and fat in pancakes.

Olney's Shrove Tuesday pancake race, said to date from 1445, is traditionally run by whom?

Local women run it in apron and headscarf, pan in hand, recalling the housewife who, tradition says, heard the church bell mid-fry and ran to the service still tossing her pancake.

On Fettisdagen, the Tuesday before Lent, Swedes eat which almond-paste-filled sweet roll?

The semla has a royal legend: King Adolf Frederick is said to have died in 1771 after a huge meal topped off with his favourite buns in hot milk, 14 of them in the popular telling.

Carnival's dates shift every year because they are counted back from which feast?

Easter sets the calendar: Shrove Tuesday always falls 47 days before Easter Sunday, so carnival's last day can land anywhere from 3 February to 9 March.

What do many churches burn on Shrove Tuesday to make the next day's ashes?

Last year's Palm Sunday palms are burned on Shrove Tuesday, and the ash, blessed with a sprinkling of holy water, is what marks a cross on worshippers' foreheads the next day.

One theory traces 'carnival' to the ship-cart that carried which Egyptian goddess's image in a Roman festival each March?

Isis was honoured at the Navigium Isidis, when priests and costumed devotees carried a model ship from her temple to the sea as a prayer for the safety of seafarers.

Carnival's role reversals echo which Roman December festival, when masters waited on their slaves at table?

Saturnalia turned Roman order upside down for a few days each December: work stopped, gambling was allowed, gifts changed hands, and in some households masters served their slaves at table.

Which Stravinsky ballet, about a puppet who comes to life, is set at a Shrovetide fair in St Petersburg?

Petrushka opens on the 1830 Shrovetide Fair, the pre-Lent carnival, with its booths, carousel and puppet theatre; a showman brings three puppets to life, and their jealousies end in a killing.

In which Shakespeare play does a father forbid his daughter to watch the masked revellers, 'Christian fools with varnished faces'?

The Merchant of Venice has Shylock order his house shut against the masquers; that same night his daughter Jessica elopes with Lorenzo, taking a good part of his wealth with her.

In which Alexandre Dumas novel is a young Frenchman kidnapped by bandits during the Roman Carnival?

The Count of Monte Cristo arranges for young Albert de Morcerf to be seized at the Carnival by the bandit Luigi Vampa, then 'rescues' him to win the trust of his enemy's son.

Which Roman street is named after the riderless horse races run along it during the city's old Carnival?

Via del Corso's races began in 1466 under Pope Paul II, when Rome's Jews were made to run as well, until Clement IX stopped that; the riderless Barb horses raced on for two more centuries.

The Venetian carnival's Volo dell'Angelo sees a performer descend on a wire from which tower?

St Mark's Campanile is said to have been first reached in the 16th century by a Turkish acrobat walking a rope up from a boat; after a performer crashed into the crowd in 1759, a wooden dove took the angel's place until 2001.

In which Poe tale is a carnival reveller dressed as a jester lured underground and walled up alive?

The Cask of Amontillado opens 'during the supreme madness of the carnival season': Montresor finds Fortunato drunk in a jester's motley and tempts him below with talk of a rare sherry.

Mindelo, home town of the singer Cesária Évora, is famous for its carnival in which African island nation?

Cape Verde's Mindelo carnival is the setting of the documentary Tchindas, named for Tchinda Andrade, a trans woman so respected that her name became the islanders' word for their queer neighbours.

Namibia's Carnival tradition was introduced by settlers from which country?

Germany ruled Namibia as German South West Africa from 1884 to 1915, and the German-speakers who stayed on kept up a Carnival in the Rhineland style.

Gualeguaychú stages the Carnaval del País, or Carnival of the Country, in which South American nation?

Argentina's Gualeguaychú built a dedicated corsódromo for the show, where comparsas backed by the city's social clubs compete against each other one night a week through January and February.

Which Barbados festival ends each summer with the Grand Kadooment parade?

Crop Over began as the plantation party marking the end of the sugar-cane harvest; it died out in the 1940s and was revived in 1974 to bring tourists to Barbados.

Which Oruro carnival dance, with dark masks and clattering rattles, is said to portray African slaves?

The Morenada's rattles, called matracas, are said to echo the clank of slaves' chains, and the outsized tongues of its dark masks their exhaustion.

Rio's 1641 street processions, often called a forerunner of Brazilian Carnival, hailed the acclamation of which new king?

John IV of Portugal had been acclaimed king in 1640, breaking Portugal away from the Spanish crown, and Rio's governor ordered the celebrations in his honour.

Which Colombian city hosts the Blacks and Whites' Carnival each January?

Pasto's revellers smear each other with black cosmetics on 5 January and white talc on the 6th, a ritual UNESCO describes as a symbol of equality between all citizens.

What are the devil-costumed characters of the Dominican Republic's Carnival called?

The Diablos Cojuelos, 'limping devils', are a satire of the Devil: they chase revellers through the streets and swat them with vejigas, inflated animal bladders.

Ecuador's Ambato Carnival is known as the festival of what?

Flowers and Fruits: Ambato created the festival after the 1949 earthquake flattened the city, as a tribute to the tenacity of the people who rebuilt it.

Kanaval, said to date from 1804, is the Carnival of which Caribbean nation?

Haiti's Kanaval packs Port-au-Prince with parading bands, and its songs and street skits have a long habit of mocking the people in power.

Which Honduran city holds Central America's largest Carnival, in May for San Isidro?

La Ceiba throws the party for its patron saint: after the Saturday afternoon parade, the avenue that bears his name turns into an all-night street party.

Which two Mexican cities host the country's largest Carnivals?

Mazatlán and Veracruz lead the country; Mazatlán's modern carnival was organised in 1898 to replace rowdy flour-throwing battles between dock and warehouse workers with an orderly costume parade.

At Panama's Carnival culecos, what soaks the crowds?

Tanker trucks: crews on top turn hoses of river water on the dancers from mid-morning into the afternoon, cooling the crowd in the heat of the Panamanian summer.

Las Tablas's Carnival in Panama is a duel between the queens of two rival what?

Streets: the town splits into Calle Arriba and Calle Abajo, 'street above' and 'street below', each with its own queen, parade and fireworks, all trying to outdo the other side.

Which town is considered the capital of Carnival in Peru?

Cajamarca is billed as Peru's carnival capital; residents dance around the unsha, a tree hung with ribbons, toys and bottles, until it is chopped down.

The Desfile de Llamadas, a night parade of candombe drummers, is a highlight of the long Carnival in which capital city?

Montevideo's Llamadas are 'calls': a group of drummers would set off through Barrio Sur and Palermo, and the sound summoned other players out to join them.

Which Croatian city's mayor hands the keys of the city to the Carnival master?

In Rijeka the mayor hands the city keys to Meštar Toni; the Kvarner Zvončari ring bells to chase off winter and a Pust doll is burned for the year's ills.

Which Cypriot city stages the island's famous ten-day Carnival and its Grand Parade?

Limassol's carnival is thought to be a legacy of Venetian rule, and its King Carnival has at times been a satirical figure sending up the politics of the day.

What is the fastelavnsris used for in Denmark's Fastelavn?

Children flog their parents awake with it today, but in the 1700s it was young men and women who whipped each other out of bed with the twigs, a symbol of fertility.

Which French port's Carnival grew from fishermen's farewells before sailing to Icelandic waters?

Dunkirk's shipowners gave their fishermen a feast and half their pay before half a year at sea; many never came back for the other half, and the send-off grew into the carnival.

What is the Greek Carnival season called?

Apókries sends masked revellers, the maskarádes, out to play pranks for three weeks; Lent then opens on Clean Monday, when Greeks head outdoors to fly kites.

What is Tsiknopémpti, a highlight of the Greek Carnival's Kreatiní week?

Smoky Thursday, a day of big roasts, is named after tsikna, the smell of grilling meat; it falls on a Thursday because Orthodox custom keeps Wednesdays and Fridays as fast days.

Which Greek city holds the country's largest Carnival, complete with a citywide treasure hunt?

Patras ends its carnival by marching the final Sunday parade down to the harbour, where the effigy of the Carnival King is ceremonially burned.

Around Milan, the Ambrosian rite lets Carnival run past Shrove Tuesday until which day of the same week?

Saturday, known as Sabato Grasso: Ambrosian Lent only begins on the following Sunday, and legend says Milan once waited for Saint Ambrose to return from a journey before starting its fast.

Ivrea's famous Carnival fruit battle recalls a medieval revolt said to have been sparked by whom?

A miller's daughter, Violetta, is said to have beheaded the tyrant who claimed a lord's right to her wedding night; each year a local woman is chosen to play her as the carnival's heroine.

Malta's Carnival traditionally opens with the Parata, a mock fight recalling the island's 1565 victory over which besiegers?

The Ottoman Turks' failed siege was replayed by dancers dressed as Christians and Turks; under the Knights, no revelry could begin until the Grand Master's permission was read from his palace balcony.

Which two southern Dutch provinces are the heartland of carnaval?

North Brabant and Limburg stayed Catholic when the Reformation split the Low Countries, so the feast before Lent survived there while the Protestant north let it lapse.

As Oeteldonk at Carnival, 's-Hertogenbosch takes which animal as its symbol?

Frog: for Carnival the city becomes the make-believe village of Oeteldonk, a 'donk' being a dry rise in a marsh, and the frog is the emblem of its swamp.

Which town, namesake of Wellington's defensive Lines, bills its Carnival as 'the most Portuguese in Portugal'?

Torres Vedras fills its parade with floats that send up society and politics, and the 'most Portuguese' label is one the town awarded itself.

Which Portuguese village's Carnival is famous for the Caretos, masked figures in fringed costumes?

Podence's Caretos, in tin masks and fringed wool suits, dance around the village women shaking the cowbells at their hips, a rite UNESCO says may be tied to old fertility customs.

Which food symbolising the sun is essential to Russia's Maslenitsa?

Bliny, round and golden like the sun, use the butter, eggs and milk allowed in the week before Great Lent.

Which fluffy, demon-like figure is the star of Slovenia's Ptuj carnival?

The Kurent, in sheepskin with a long red tongue and cowbells at its belt, is said to chase away winter; Ptuj's Kurentovanje is named for it.

What is a Rio samba school's parade song, newly composed every year, called?

Samba-enredo is one of the judged categories: the whole school sings it along with the lead singer as it parades, and a samba that is poorly sung costs points in the contest.

What is the name of the choreographed group that opens each samba school's parade?

The comissão de frente began as the school's directors walking ahead in their best clothes to greet the crowd; today it is a troupe of about a dozen performing a choreographed story.

Which pair leads the dancers behind a samba school's opening float?

The mestre-sala and porta-bandeira dance as a couple: he escorts her as she carries and shows off the school's flag, and the judges score every step.

Which Flemish master painted The Fight Between Carnival and Lent, a crowded town-square scene, in 1559?

Pieter Bruegel the Elder packed in nearly 200 figures: Carnival rides a large beer barrel and squares up to Lent, a thin woman armed with a baker's peel on which lie two herring.

Which Rio samba school parades in green and pink?

Mangueira's green and pink are said to be co-founder Cartola's idea: as a boy he had played in a carnival group called the Arrepiados and proposed its colours for the new school.

Which nonsense song from the burlesque Bluebeard became the official anthem of Rex, King of Carnival?

'If Ever I Cease to Love' was sung by Lydia Thompson's touring troupe in 1872; legend says Rex adopted it because the visiting Grand Duke was smitten with her, a rumour the troupe happily traded on.

In rural Louisiana's Courir de Mardi Gras, masked riders go from farm to farm begging ingredients for which communal dish?

Gumbo: the prize ingredient is a live chicken, which is thrown into the air for the costumed riders to chase through the muddy fields.

At the first Lundi Gras celebration in 1987, how did Rex, the King of Carnival, arrive in New Orleans?

By boat: Rex stepped off a Coast Guard cutter at the riverfront, reviving a landing first staged in 1874; until then the Monday had been a quiet day of rest.

Which two krewes, along with Orpheus, are New Orleans's celebrity-led 'super krewes'?

Endymion and Bacchus are the two: Bacchus broke with krewe tradition at its first parade in 1969 by crowning a national star, the entertainer Danny Kaye, as its king.

Besides beads, which coin-like items are classic New Orleans parade throws?

Doubloons were the idea of artist H. Alvin Sharpe, who pitched the captain of Rex an aluminium coin light enough to throw safely; the krewe tossed the first ones in 1960.

On Fat Thursday, the last Thursday before Lent, which country queues at bakeries for filled doughnuts called pączki?

Poland's pączki began as a way to use up the lard and sugar in the house before the Lenten fast; the dough traditionally gets a splash of grain alcohol too.

Which Venetian mask covers the whole face with a prominent nose, jutting chin and no mouth?

The bauta's jutting chin let the wearer eat and drink without removing it; it was worn with a black tabarro cape and a tricorn hat.

Which Trinidadian journalist organised the 1959 indoor "Caribbean Carnival" that seeded Notting Hill?

Claudia Jones, founder of the West Indian Gazette, staged the January 1959 event at St Pancras Town Hall in response to the 1958 Notting Hill race riots.

Which punk band wrote its first single, 'White Riot', after two members were caught up in the 1976 Notting Hill Carnival riot?

The Clash's Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon were in the crowd when carnival-goers fought the police; photos of the riot became the band's stage backdrop and the back cover of their first album.

Which contest, borrowed from Trinidad, opens Notting Hill Carnival weekend on the Saturday night?

Panorama is not part of the street parade at all: Britain's steel bands face off in a park on the eve of carnival, each given up to ten minutes to impress the judges.

At which Trinidad show, held the night before J'ouvert, is the Calypso Monarch crowned?

Dimanche Gras, on the Sunday before Lent, crowns the Calypso Monarch and the King and Queen of Carnival at the Queen's Park Savannah.

Which Spanish decree of 1783 opened Trinidad to Catholic settlers, whose masked balls helped seed its Carnival?

The Cédula de Población offered free land to any Catholic settler, with more for every slave brought along, and the island's small population multiplied several times over by 1797.

Trinidad Carnival designer Peter Minshall dreamed up which crowd-pleaser for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics opening ceremony?

Inflatable tube men began as Minshall's 60-foot 'tall boys'; the collaborator who built them went on to patent the idea, and they ended up flailing outside roadside businesses.

Which earlier Carnival percussion tradition did the steelpan evolve from?

Tamboo Bamboo bands beat out rhythms on lengths of bamboo after the colonial authorities banned drumming in the 1880s; in the 1930s the players began trading the bamboo for metal.

Which West African tradition is calypso's rhythm traced back to?

Kaiso let plantation slaves sing about their masters; many early songs were in French Creole, led by a singer called the chantwell, forerunner of the calypsonian.

Who created soca music in the 1970s to revive calypso?

Lord Shorty, later Ras Shorty I, fused calypso with Indian rhythms on his song 'Indrani'; he spelt the new style 'sokah', but a journalist's spelling, 'soca', is the one that stuck.

Which satirical singing groups are the heart of the Carnival of Cádiz?

Chirigotas sing comic songs that mock politicians and the year's news, performing in costume all over Cádiz through the two weeks of carnival.

Which French composer barred public performances of his Carnival of the Animals, fearing for his serious reputation?

Camille Saint-Saëns wrote the suite for private performance in 1886 and let only 'The Swan' be published while he lived; the rest came out in 1922, months after his death.

Viareggio's Carnival, famed for towering satirical floats that parade beside the beach, takes place in which Italian region?

Tuscany's Viareggio held its first parade in 1873, when wealthy young men showed off decorated carriages and other locals put on masks to protest against their taxes.

What happened to Carnival Cruise Line's first ship, the Mardi Gras, as she left Miami on her maiden cruise in 1972?

She ran aground with 530 passengers aboard and sat stuck for a day; rivals nicknamed the ship 'Mardi Gras on the Rocks', while the crew kept the drinks flowing.

Who founded Carnival Cruise Line in 1972?

Ted Arison, who had earlier co-founded Norwegian Caribbean Line with Knut Kloster, started Carnival in 1972; its whale-tail funnel is a registered trademark.

Which network aired Carnivàle, the 2003 drama about a travelling carnival crossing the Dust Bowl?

HBO cancelled Carnivàle after two seasons, with most of its creator's planned story still untold, even though its first episode had set an audience record for a network original.

In the 1988 film Big, which carnival fortune-teller machine grants a boy's wish to grow up?

Zoltar grants it, although the boy then notices that the machine had been unplugged the whole time.

Which 250-metre observation wheel opened in October 2021?

Ain Dubai took the height record from the High Roller in Las Vegas, then shut after only five months, in March 2022, and stayed closed to visitors until late December 2024.

The fairground carousel takes its name from the 'carrousel' of 17th-century Europe, which was what kind of event?

A horse tournament: riders speared rings at the gallop, and the first carousels were practice machines whose wooden horses hung from a turning pole, sparing the real ones.

Which fairground treat did dentist William Morrison help mechanise in 1897?

Cotton candy, first sold as Fairy Floss, was a hit at the 1904 World's Fair; its modern name came in the 1920s from a second dentist, Josef Lascaux.

On Weiberfastnacht, the Thursday that opens Rhineland street carnival, women traditionally cut off men's what?

Ties, seen as a symbol of male power, are snipped by women who also storm the town halls for the day; each man is paid for his loss with a kiss.

Which immigrant community brought the yeast ancestor of the funnel cake to America?

The Pennsylvania Dutch call it Drechderkuche; around 1879 they swapped the yeast for baking powder and gave the lighter version its English name, funnel cake.

Which three rival amusement parks made up Coney Island's heyday?

Steeplechase Park (1897), Luna Park (1903, on the old Sea Lion Park site) and Dreamland (1904) competed until Dreamland burned in 1911.

In which three countries is Junkanoo most notably practised?

The Bahamas, Jamaica and Belize share it; Nassau's parades are the famous ones, but researchers trace the festival's roots to Jamaica, where it filled the three Christmas holidays slaves were allowed.

Which taxidermy hoax did P. T. Barnum turn into a sideshow sensation in 1842?

The Fiji Mermaid was a monkey's torso sewn to a fish tail; Barnum only leased it, then whipped up crowds with anonymous letters to newspapers and a bogus naturalist, 'Dr. Griffin'.

Which Texas immigrant sausage-makers are credited with introducing the corn dog?

Germans who had settled in Texas are said to have found locals wary of their sausages, so as a ploy they rolled them in cornmeal batter and fried them; the stick came later.

What is sprinkled on the floor of a bumper-car arena to reduce friction?

Graphite is slippery and conducts electricity, which suits the classic ride: its steel floor also completes the circuit that powers the cars.

Which race across the icy Saint Lawrence was first run at the 1894 Quebec Winter Carnival?

Canoe crews paddle through open water and haul the canoe over the floes; before icebreaking steamers, canoes carried people and goods across when ice stopped the ferries.

Skee-Ball, the classic carnival redemption game, was patented in 1908 by a resident of which state?

New Jersey's Joseph Simpson, of Vineland, signed half his patent over to a Philadelphia partner, but the company selling the game soon ran out of money and the inventor lost his house.

Whac-A-Mole, the mallet-and-moles arcade game, was created in 1975 by the amusements manufacturer TOGO in which country?

Japan knew it as Mogura Taiji, 'Mole Buster'; designer Kazuo Yamada worked it up from ten pencil sketches, and it became one of the country's top-earning arcade machines of 1976 and 1977.

The Gravitron, the fairground ride that pins riders to padded wall panels as it spins, is a modification of which earlier ride?

The Rotor's floor dropped away once riders were pinned to the wall; the Gravitron swapped that for sliding padded panels, so no feet could get caught between a moving floor and the wall.

In Canada, the carnival corn dog is commonly called what, after a popular brand produced by Conagra?

Pogo is a frozen brand whose name stuck: in Quebec and Ontario any corn dog is a pogo, while out west the Calgary Stampede still sells them as corn dogs.

Newark candy-maker William Kolb is credited with inventing which fairground treat in 1908?

Candy apples are said to have begun as a Christmas window display: Kolb dipped apples in his red cinnamon candy, sold the batch at five cents each and was soon selling thousands a year.

Jacques Tilly's satirical floats for Düsseldorf's Rosenmontag carnival parade are sculpted from what material?

Papier-mâché is Tilly's medium for caricatures of politicians, world leaders and religious figures, and his floats now turn up at protests as well as parades.

Together with Cologne and Düsseldorf, which city completes the trio of Rhenish carnival strongholds?

Mainz gives its carnival a political edge: revellers began by mocking the French troops garrisoned there, and its carnival guards still parade in parodies of the occupiers' uniforms.