VOA常速英语:威尼斯举办盛大狂欢节

Italy renowned Venice Carnival attracts thousands of visitors every year. Cheerful crowds, many in costume, gathered along the candidature canal on Sunday to watch the annual boat parade. A boat depicting a giant sewer rat known in Venice as the Pentagona led the parade this year.
I’m so happy to see a lot of people, wearing different costumes, masks, and you know Venice and gowns. All is amazing.

Rio De Janeiro is another popular destination during the Carnival season. Brazil has suffered a number of disasters in the past year, including a deadly dam collapse in January. Performers say they will do all they can to cheer people up. 2019 started off very tense, so the idea of Carnival for us musicians is to make people forget the problems and enjoy themselves a little bit.
Carnivals are often the time to vent frustrations with current political situations. Masks and costumes ridiculing world leaders are among the most common. Putin, Trump, a little bit of all the actual politicians.
Impersonations of Murray characters also are popular, but some countries stick to tradition. In Bolivia, the festivities start with participants in making noise to wake up the spirit of the carnival and begging him to get out of his casket. Carnival traditions heart back to pagan times when people dressed up in scary costumes and made noise to frighten away winter or welcome the New Year. In the Macedonian village of Evgeniy, Orthodox Christians celebrate the beginning of a new year according to the old Julian calendar with a street carnival evolved from an ancient pagan Rite.
Slovenia’s oldest recorded city Ptuj observes a UNESCO protected tradition of ringing bells to help drive away winter and evil from the land and to welcome spring and a bountiful year. A group of six men dressed as huge mythical beasts showed up at this year’s power pine world ski championships in Sweden. “We are here with, we support sports outlet.”
But who knows. Maybe the bell ring is awakened some ancient Slovene spirit who helped their compatriot Ilka Styhec win a gold medal in the women’s downhill.
Isbella Ho VOA News Washington.