The march against religious intolerance was a success at the Rio de Janeiro festival

The Grande Rio Samba School won the title of champion at the Rio de Janeiro Carnival this Tuesday, thanks to a march against religious intolerance.In the edition of the long-awaited return to Sambatrom after the epidemic had ceased.

Grande Rio earned the first title in its history by downplaying the divinity of Xu, who was of African descent, and often confronted the prejudice of some Christian groups associated with the devil.

After months of expanding imposed metaphorical cars, dances, and costumes, ‘Escola’ approached different aspects of the exo, such as the “Orixa” (Afro-Brazilian deity) shortcuts and movement, responsible for the connection between humans and gods in religions such as the condom. Umbanda.

Leandro Bora, Grande Rio’s ‘carnival’ (art director), said after the victory that the march was “designed to defend our beliefs against religious racism and to sing the praises of Xu’s favorite historical process and life.”

After seeing their parades halted in 2021 and postponed for two months this year due to an epidemic, the twelve major ‘Escolas’ came back in all their splendor and shook Sampatroma. 70,000 spectators gathered for two nights last weekend.

Unlike other traditional groups such as Mankuera and Portella, founded in the 1920s, the Grande Rio appeared in 1988 and never won first place in the competition.

Among the best sixes featured this year, they will once again present themselves on the show “Parade of the Champions” next Saturday. They were raised against racism and religious intolerance, flags that became more relevant during the government of the far-right President Jair Bolsanaro.

Traditional Beijing-Floor took second place in praising black philosophers and thinkers through their show “Black Thought”; Vila Isabel, fourth, honored Zambista Martinho da Vila; Portella, in fifth place, spoke of African descent and its influence on Brazilian culture; Salquiro, in sixth place, was inspired by the anti-racist struggles that followed the deaths of American George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Vitoro, third, Recalling the festival in 1919, karyokas were massively dumped in the streets to celebrate the so-called Spanish flu, drawing parallel to the current epidemic.It caused more than 660,000 deaths in Brazil.

(Taken from AFP)