Discover the origin and history of Carnival in Argentina

Carnival is, throughout the world, one of the oldest popular expressions of humanity. The Encyclopedia Britannica identifies two possible origins: festivals dedicated to the god Saturn in the pagan Roman Empire and an early celebration that “honored the beginning of the new year and the rebirth of nature.” Whatever the truth, something of these two celebrations continues today in Argentina, one of the countries that honors the celebration with holidays and street events.

At least it has been this way since 2010, when Carnival days were established as national holidays and, since then, in numerous cities across the country they have been celebrated with different events in squares, clubs and streets.

Each region of the country celebrates Carnival in different ways: with large events with floats; with percussion shows and groups that parade through a sambadrome; in neighborhoods with murgas [ritmo musical e manifestação popular] and stages in streets, clubs and squares and also those where people walk through houses and streets, where the public and artists meet and mingle, in a popular festival.

However, just like in the rest of Latin America, Carnival has a long history, as it has been celebrated at least since the arrival of Christopher Columbus in America.

What is the history of Carnival in Argentina?

Carnival was introduced to Argentina by the Spanish. However, María Luz Endere, archaeologist, lawyer and researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research, states that in Latin America and the Caribbean, although Carnival has expanded with the Catholic tradition as a period of celebrations and fun, it has also incorporated elements of pre-Hispanic Andean and African-American cultures.

At first, the celebration was linked to the days before the “cleansing of the meat”, which later led to the religious prohibition of consuming it during the 40 days of Lent.

According to a publication by the Argentine Ministry of Culture, the celebration had different expressions in different periods. Thus, in the times when Argentina was a Spanish colony, both the popular and wealthy sectors held their celebrations, although each social class did so in a different place than Buenos Aires at that time.

In short, the popular festival took over the public space with debauchery and uproar, in what the upper classes considered “barbaric customs”.

“Dances and water games flooded the streets. Fountains rained from the balconies, hollow eggs filled with water, buckets of lavender water to wet friends and salt water for enemies,” says the Ministry of Culture website.

Mercedes Mariano, anthropologist and researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research at the Institute for Archaeological and Paleontological Research of the Pampean Quaternary, considers that, throughout Argentine history, carnivals were a form of resistance.

“Since colonial times, celebrations have included imitations and mockery, usually of authorities, constituting rituals of resistance to contradict the established order. They consisted of a brief period of freedom, a parenthesis, amidst the oppressions that characterized their daily lives,” he explains.

Between the end of the 18th century and the first part of the 19th century, the governments in power echoed the demands of the wealthier sectors, for whom celebrations were limited to closed spaces and the beating of drums – a hallmark of the important African population – was punished with flogging and up to one month in prison. Until 1954, Carnival was censored, punished and banned.

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento was in charge of restoring the celebrations of the end of the 19th century. According to the Ministry of Culture, this attitude occurred after Sarmiento took a trip around the world during which, during a visit to Italy, he became enchanted by the idea of ​​anonymity behind the classic Venetian masks.

In 1869, Sarmiento promoted the first official parade, an event whose main attractions were murgas and groups composed mainly of people of African descent.

“The creation of costumes and masks that sought to make all participants equal, without distinction” was one of the attractions of the event, according to the Ministry of Culture.

While, for African Americans, Carnival was a space for sharing their music, for whites, on the other hand, it was a limited space for liberation from oppressive norms, where “joy, mockery and debauchery” were permitted.

In the 20th century, Carnival was modified by the influence of Italian and Spanish immigrants

“There was a transition from the candombe groups to the murgas, who started to dance and play in the Corsicans [desfiles com carros alegóricos]”.

This was interrupted by the military dictatorship that began in Argentina in 1976, which eliminated these dates from the official calendar and banned street celebrations until the return of democracy in 1983.

“Although only a dozen murgas survived, the carnival phenomenon continued with great force in the neighborhoods and regained public space”, according to the Ministry of Culture.