Carnaval em plena Broadway.Brazilian Carnival on Broadway.

Carro alegorico.
Originally uploaded by Andreas Toscano.

Ontem foi feriado aqui: Dia de Acao de Gracas. Eh, provavelmente, o feriado mais importante nos EUA. Quase tao importante quanto o Carnaval para os brasileiros. Talvez por isso, sejam tao parecidos.
Como nao ia viajar, resolvi assistir aa famosa Parada da Macy's, que completou 80 anos em 2006. A parada eh a versao americana do Carnaval brasileiro. Alem da alegria, eh impressionante a semelhanca entre os dois: para (quase) tudo que existe no Carnaval, existe um primo (as vezes melhorado) na Parada do Dia de Acao de Gracas.
A primeira e mais obvia comparacao eh a presenca de carros alegoricos (foto). A diferenca entre os dois (alem das mulheres nuas) fica por parte da tracao. Ao inves de 6 sambistas subnutridos, uma pick-up enorme da GMC. Na Parada, obviamente nao ha Escolas de Samba, mas diversos Estados do pais mandam suas Bandas Marciais que equivalem aas Baterias. Detalhe: eles nao tem microfones e andam muito mais de 1 quilometro. A Parada, assim como o Carnaval tambem eh dividida em blocos. Apesar do numero de brasileiros aqui, nao tem nenhuma ala das Baianas. Para compensar, eles tem a ala das Cheerleaders. Outra semelhanca: aqui tambem tem uma dupla que passa entre os blocos. So que, ao inves do mestre-sala e da porta-bandeira, eh o mestre-lata e o porta-vassoura (uma dupla de lixeiros que vai limpando a rua durante o espetaculo). Nem mesmo os bonecos de Olinda escaparam. Diversos icones da historia americana tambem apareceram representados por bonecos com cabecas completamente desproporcionais. A unica coisa que soh tem aqui sao os baloes. De quando em quando passa um balao gigante de algum personagem famoso (Bob Esponja, Scooby-Doo, Pikachu, Sr. Cabeca de Batata, etc.), seguro por um monte de cabos nas maos dos participantes.
Apesar de nao ter o suingue do Samba, uma coisa da Parada serve de exemplo para o Carnaval no Brasil: eh uma festa realmente para o povo. Nao se cobra entrada dos espectadores e ninguem tem que usar camiseta da Budweiser para ser aceito no camarote. Ate porque nao existe camarote.

Tem foto de tudo isso no Flickr.

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Yesterday was holiday here: Thanksgiving. It is probably the most important holiday in the US. It's almost as important as Carnival for Brazilians. Maybe that explains the many similarities between them.
Since I wasn't going to travel, I decided to watch the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, now on its 80th edition. The Parade is the American version of the Brazilian Carnival. Besides all the joy, it's amazing how similar they are: for (almost) everything you see in Carnival there's a (sometimes better) substitute in the Parade.
The first and most obvious comparison is the presence of Parade Floats (picture). The only difference between them (besides the naked women) is the traction. Instead of 6 undernourished samba dancers, a huge GMC truck. At the Parade you obviously won't find any Samba Schools, but many States send in their Marching Bands that equal the Baterias (drumming segments responsible for the rhythm). AND they have no microphones and walk much more than 0.6 miles. The Parade, just like Carnival, is divided in groups. Despite the number of Brazilian immigrants, there's no group of Baianas (Brazilian women famous for their dancing and clothing style). To compensate, they have groups of Cheerleaders. Yet another similarity: here there's also 2 people performing between the groups. Instead of the Mestre-Sala and the Porta-Bandeira (couple reponsible for bearing the flag of the Samba School), a couple of garbagemen cleaning the streets. Not even the Dolls of Olinda (famous for their huge heads) were forgotten. Many of the Historic Leaders of this country were represented by dolls with humungous heads. The only thing that you can find only here are the balloons. Every now and then, a huge inflatable balloon of a famous character (Sponge Bob, Scooby-Doo, Pikachu, Mr. Potato Head, etc.) will fly by, held by cables by a crowd.
Although they don't have the swing of Samba, the Parade has a characteristic that should pose as an example for Carnival in Brazil: it's definitely a show for the masses. There are tickets needed to watch it and no special Budweiser t-shirt needed to access the VIP area (in Brazil, the main beer factories build VIP areas and demand people to wear a specific t-shirt). But that's because there's no VIP area.

You can find pictures of all of the above at Flickr.