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It’s February. This means carnaval time. Having lived in this country together with BB - a Brazilian Beauty that turned into a Brazilian Bitch far too rapidly - for four years, I soon discovered that this “fiesta” is being celibrated in all parts of this country. All over the place, there are colourful parades with music, dressed up people dancing and having fun and children playing in the streets and squares. It seems that everybody wants to come out of their houses, and want to see or be seen… People are spending many weeks and months making their costumes very patiently with a lot of creativity. A lot of colours, a lot of confetti, a lot of fun.

Somehow, I have always watched this kind of “fiesta” from a distance and never took an active part in it. I guess I am not catholic enough to fully appreciate this party. The tradition of it goes back many centuries, to ancient catholic Italy when a huge dressed-up party took place at the eve of Ash Wednesday, forty days before Eastern. The popularity of this event grew all over the catholic world, and everybody nowadays knows that the carnaval in Rio de Janeiro is the most famous on the globe.

There are many theories about the word “carnaval”. Most probably, it comes from the Italian “carne levare” or from the Latin “carne vale”, the “removal of meat” or “goodbye to meat”. In the catholic world, during the forty days before Eastern, people should not eat or drink much, and especially not eat meat. Except on Sundays…

Yesterday, on a cold and rainy day in the Algarve, I went to take a walk in Tavira, and witnessed this year’s carnaval parade…

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This afternoon, I went to Tavira. It’s the first town I come across to if I drive west, about 13 kilometers from where I live. Tavira is one of the oldest towns in Portugal, very beautiful with a lot of historical churches and chapels (more than 30 of them), and very special houses that have been built on both banks of the Gilão river. Both parts of this town are connected through a very old Roman pedestrian bridge, which has been there for more than 2000 years. Only recently has Tavira become a haven for travelers in search of tranquil beaches, but the town itself has kept its calm. Fortunately, no busloads of tourists (yet).

Typical for this town are the special roofs, in a form of a piramide, with four sides. In Portugese, they are called “telhados de quatro águas”. One possible reason why they have this special shape could be because we can have pretty serious showers over here (in the fall and the spring time). Having lived over here for nearly six years, and having travelled immensively throughout this country, Tavira is the only place I have seen these roofs.

Obviously I took some pictures while I was walking around this ancient town. You can find them over here.

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