Rio de Janeiro (AFP)
Instead of the deafening percussions, the silence of meditation.
A bass drum is placed on the ground for a tribute to the Brazilian victims of the coronavirus in front of the Samba museum of a city of Rio deprived of carnival by the pandemic.
Normally, the streets should already be full of revelers, and samba schools should work out the final details of their lavish Sunday and Monday night parades at the sambodrome.
But this year, the Cariocas are deprived of the popular festival that is the pride and world reputation of Rio de Janeiro.
They experience the "saudade", this very Brazilian nostalgia for these festivities which have only been canceled twice before, in 1892 and 1912.
"For all lovers of samba, for the Afro-descendant people, it is a difficult moment. We will not have our moment of celebration, we will only be able to mourn the dead", told AFP Nilcemar Nogueira, founder of the Samba Museum, located at the foot of the Mangueira favela hill, cradle of the famous samba school of the same name.
For this "symbolic opening" of the carnival, Friday, she was content to pay tribute to the more than 236,000 Brazilians who died of Covid-19.
The musicians sang a few a capella songs, while dancers in long white dresses and turbans waved boughs in a ritual of "purification" of Afro-Brazilian religions.
- Empty sambodrome -
Hit hard by the second wave of contaminations, with more than 1,000 daily deaths for several weeks, Brazil remains immersed in an extremely serious health crisis, with a chaotic vaccination campaign launched late.
Rio is the most bereaved city in the country, with nearly 20,000 deaths.
Under these conditions, there is no question of organizing a party that attracts hundreds of thousands of revelers in the "blocos", street processions whose organizers had to resolve to organize virtual concerts online instead of unbridled parades.
About 5,000 coolers from the Ambev brewer, usually used to sell cold cans of beer on the street, were distributed to these vaccination centers to help keep doses at the required temperature.
The shortfall for trade is immense, with last year's carnival bringing in around R $ 4 billion (roughly $ 750 million).
The samba schools, which usually prepare for long months during their sumptuous parades with monumental floats, are totally at a standstill, with hundreds of seamstresses, props, mechanics, dancers and choreographers unemployed.
Desperately empty, the sambodrome will be lit up in the colors of the different schools on the nights when it was supposed to receive more than 70,000 spectators for the awe-inspiring spectacle usually watched by millions of Brazilians on television.
They will have to be satisfied with the replay of the 28 most significant parades in the history of carnival on TV Globo.
More than 1,000 police officers were mobilized to enforce the bans on gatherings.
The penalties are up to one year in prison, but images circulating on social networks have shown in recent days revelers in clandestine parties, especially in the northern suburbs of Rio.
The beaches, bars and restaurants remain open but hotel occupancy is around 50%, compared to nearly 100% last year at the same time.
© 2021 AFP