Thursday: Kids' escola parading tonight!

A sweet note on the kids' parade (this Thursday night) in the Sambodromo, from Leonardo, author of the Roda de Samba blog.

"I can't believe it. The years go by, but the emotion always springs anew. I say this to express what I felt in the instant when I passed the corner of Avenida Presidente Vargas with Rua Marques de Sapucai. There were already some floats there from the little kids' groups that will parade today, starting at 5pm. The impression that I had was that, on seeing that Avenida illuminated with that little beginning of Carnaval, represented by those little floats, I felt like I had left the planet and enttered paradise. Moments like this are what still give pleasure to life. I felt there, in my skin, one of the things I most love."

The 18 children's groups are parading right now as I write this! 30 minutes per group.


(translation note: The Brazilians say "in my skin", na pele, to mean feeling something very deeply. We'd probably say "in my bones". I'm guessing it comes from black Brazilians' references to their skin color as a shorthand for their soul, spirit, or rootsy background, as in Jorge Aragao's famous song "Coisa de Pele" - A Thing of the Skin - which is a song about his rootsy past before he became famous.)