Once a year,  Rio de Janeiro holds the world's big and famous carnival. It begins forty days before the Catholic holiday, Lent. The celebrations start Friday, prior to Ash Wednesday up until the following Tuesday. Ash Wednesday is a day used for recovering from the previous sleepless nights.

The carnival's events attract thousands of participants from all over the world. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to precede accommodation arrangements.

The carnival binds the Samba's schools for two days of contest parade that last for 75 minutes and to the parade of the winners that takes place on the third day.

In the contest parades every school demonstrates its tempo and color abilities. In the first two days, a fix number of schools compete, every day, on scores in various known categories that were set by skilled judges.

At the end of the two contest's days only those groups who gain the high scores participate in the winner parade that takes place on the third day.

Special tribunes are located along the one km parade course. The observers who succeeded in finding/buying seats on these tribunes can have fascinating experience.