In the year in which Marquês de Sapucaí celebrated its 40th anniversary Viradouro Samba School had the best performance among the 12 Rio de Janeiro samba schools in the Special Group Viradouro’s winning samba paid homage to the serpent vodun cult The school made its parade entry on Monday (Feb Following Viradouro in the top five were Imperatriz Leopoldinense These schools will join Viradouro for the Parade of Champions scheduled for Saturday (17) at Marquês de Sapucaí Mocidade Alegre samba school is the winner of the 2024 carnival In second and third place were Dragões da Real and Acadêmicos do Tatuapé The theme conceived by the school for this year was written by carnival artist Jorge Silveira and Leonardo Antan and suggests a review of the concept of Brazilian identity “The year 2024 marks the centenary of the beginning of the historic journey that the poet Mario de Andrade took through deep Brazil in search of composing the patchwork that forms our national cultural identity Our parade aims to open the travel diary of the ‘Turista Aprendiz’ and follow the steps of his expedition with him Mocidade Alegre returns to São Paulo’s sambódromo this Saturday (17) for the Champions Parade You must be logged in to post a comment CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL EDITIONS Rosa María Egipciaca – an unknown woman with a fascinating story Her name is now more familiar to Brazilians after the 18th-century slave’s starring role in the Viradouro samba school procession at the Sambadrome parade ground in Rio de Janeiro dancers and 3,200 people all came together to revive the memory of this woman – a slave saint and the first Black female writer in Brazil Rosa is the Christian name given to this little girl from the Courá ethnic group who was kidnapped and enslaved by the Portuguese from the coast of present-day Benin She arrived in Rio de Janeiro when she was six and was taken to the neighboring state of Minas Gerais during the gold and gem rush Sex slaves received clothes and jewelry from their customers that they could eventually use to buy their freedom When she began to have mystical visions during an illness people started regarding her as a holy woman Rosa adopted the nickname “Egipcíaca” after St an Egyptian ascetic who was also a prostitute Rosa was bought by a priest named Francisco Gonçalves Lopes also known as “Chuta Diablos.” Gonçalves vowed to exorcise the devil from Rosa and she became the demon-possessed star attraction of his popular exorcism show her tongue was burned for 15 minutes with a candle to prove her paranormal powers The bishop of Mariana called her a fake and had her publicly flogged an unusual punishment for women at the time Rosa and Gonçalves became inseparable – the priest even wore a pendant around his neck with one of her teeth where they were taken in by Franciscan monks at the Convent of St “Everyone saw her as this demon-possessed Black sorceress the Catholic Church treated her differently and people began venerating her as a saint,” said Zanon Her gifts never failed to fill churches at a time when the Catholic Church used Black saints like St and she founded a home to care for girls and prostitutes She mixed her saliva into a communion wafer that her devotees considered sacred and conducted crowded ceremonies that blended Catholic liturgy with African rites and smoky voodoo dances At the height of her fame, she learned to read and began to write compulsively. She recorded her visions in a 250-page book that the Catholic Church later branded as heretical. Gonçalves partially destroyed the book, trying to save it from the Inquisition Only 15 pages remained intact and are now kept in Portugal’s National Archives in Lisbon The last years of Rosa’s life were marked by increasingly megalomaniacal delirium She predicted a flood that would devastate Rio de Janeiro just as the earthquake destroyed Lisbon and said her small convent would emerge from the floodwaters like Noah’s Ark Another boat would appear carrying King Sebastião of Portugal who had disappeared two centuries earlier in Morocco Rosa claimed that she carried Christ’s physical heart in her body and that she was breastfeeding baby Jesus Rosa became violent with high society dignitaries in the throes of her trances the Catholic Church denounced her as a heretic and false saint Zanon says this is a sign of her significance since taking prisoners on trans-Atlantic journeys was unusual Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition ¿Quieres añadir otro usuario a tu suscripción ¿Por qué estás viendo esto? cambia tu suscripción a la modalidad Premium Cada uno accederá con su propia cuenta de email lo que os permitirá personalizar vuestra experiencia en EL PAÍS ¿Tienes una suscripción de empresa? Accede aquí para contratar más cuentas En el caso de no saber quién está usando tu cuenta, te recomendamos cambiar tu contraseña aquí. Si decides continuar compartiendo tu cuenta, este mensaje se mostrará en tu dispositivo y en el de la otra persona que está usando tu cuenta de forma indefinida, afectando a tu experiencia de lectura. Puedes consultar aquí los términos y condiciones de la suscripción digital. Rio de Janeiro's Sambadrome was awash with colour with music blaring and sequins, feathers, glitter and skin in abundance as Carnival's main event defied a tropical deluge and other dramas gripping the nation. Although the skies opened up about an hour ahead of the start of the all-night extravaganza, drenching revellers and performers and flooding streets around the arena, Rio's Mecca of Carnival. Wildly costumed performers from six Samba schools packed the Sambadrome, where tennis ace Rafael Nadal was a star guest of the parade clad in a clear waterproof poncho.  Nadal, in town for the Rio Open tournament, was mobbed by the press during his 20-minute stay at the event where he showed some fancy samba-style footwork of his own among the performers with Spanish compatriot David Ferrer and Brazil's own former French Open winner Gustavo 'Guga' Kuerten. The year's five-day-long Carnival celebrations, which also include some 450 alcohol-soaked street parties, or 'blocos,' comes as a welcome respite from the recent avalanche of bad news afflicting Brazil.  In addition to near-constant reminders of the stalled economy, Brazilians are coping with a snowballing corruption scandal at the state-run oil giant Petrobras as well as the worst drought in 80 years in the southeast, which includes Rio and the country's industrial and business hub of Sao Paulo. Some Carnival celebrations in smaller cities have even been cancelled because of the drought so Sunday's rains in Rio were widely welcomed, even if they were a hindrance to the city's biggest party.  'It hasn't dampened the performers' spirits, and at least it's not so hot with the rain,' said Helio Abreu, a 53-year-old doctor taking shelter with his wife at a concession stand.  'I know we need it, but to tell you the truth I really wish it had started on Ash Wednesday,' the last day of Carnival. In Paraty, a colonial jewel of a city between Rio and Sao Paulo, Carnival was scaled down after a deadly shooting on Saturday night.  One person was killed and nine others injured, including three tourists from Sao Paulo, in the shootout which erupted in the midst of a crowd of revellers in the historic downtown, according to local news reports.  Six samba schools were parading in Rio's Sambadrome on Sunday night, with each group required to get their thousands of participants and giant floats across the roughly 730 meter-long runway in under 82 minutes. Six other schools will perform on Monday, with all 12 groups vying for the title of the year's best. Mangueira and Salgueiro were the biggest-name samba schools parading Sunday.  Last year's champion, Unidos da Tijuca, is the last parade Monday, with the winning school announced later in the week.  Sambadrome sparkles as Rio's Carnival hots up in spite of rainCommenting on this article has endedNewest{{#isModerationStatus}}{{moderationStatus}} The Brazilian samba group which chose a seven-year-old to be the queen of its drum section has finished last in the Rio Carnival parade competition.Julia Lira was reduced to tears under the media glare but eventually danced on at the helm of Viradouro's parade Viradouro came last in the drum corps category and also fared badly in the float category The poor finish saw it relegated to the second division The winning parade had skiers dressed like Batman and a pregnant drum queen The Unidos da Tijuca samba group took home the trophy for the first time in 74 years for their parade entitled Its winning entry also featured a Michael Jackson impersonator and a four-month pregnant television presenter "It was a beautiful carnival and my congratulations to all the other groups," Tijuca's artistic director Paulo Barros told AP news agency 12 samba schools take part in the fiercely-competitive parade that is watched by millions on live television across Brazil The groups spend between $3-$5m (£2-3m) on elaborate costumes and extravagant floats What are these? ' + liveStatsFacts[Math.floor(Math.random()*liveStatsFacts.length)] + ' Most Popular Now | 56,514 people are reading stories on the site right now."; A Brazilian judge has overruled objections from a child rights agency and allowed a seven-year-old girl to lead a Rio de Janeiro carnival parade.The Viradouro carnival drum corps queen is a coveted role normally reserved for sultry models The artistic director of Julia Lira's samba school said there was no question of "turning her into a woman" and her costume would emphasise her innocence Rio's state child protection agency is to lodge an appeal against the ruling the judge handling child welfare matters in Rio found no objection to Julia becoming the youngest dancing queen ever to appear in the parades She is now scheduled to lead the Viradouro samba parade in the packed Sambadrome stadium in Rio on Sunday night with millions of people around the country watching her on live TV Child's rights advocates have argued it is inappropriate for a young girl to be put in what has been an erotically charged role the girl's father and president of Viradouro said concerns about Julia's well-being were being exaggerated He said his daughter would wear a costume that was not too skimpy for a seven-year-old and that both he and his wife would watch her closely to make sure she did not get too tired during the 80-minute parade any father knows what I'm talking about," he added she does not need that and I don't need that." director of the Rio de Janeiro state council for the defence of children and adolescents said the court ruling set a "negative precedent" for Brazil The Rio Carnival has many stars but much of the attention this year was on one of its youngest performers Her father Marco is president of the Viradouro samba school which chose the seven-year-old to be queen of its drum section with both parents viewing it as a great opportunity A child welfare group in Rio raised objections saying the role had too much of a "sexual focus" for someone so young But after being given details of the costume she was to wear a judge allowed the young drum queen to participate in the parade and to dance her way into a little of carnival history At one point the attention from the cameras was a little too much for her but she is reported to have recovered her composure to return a short time later the director of the drums section for Viradouro "Carnival is about innovation," he told the BBC News website "People are claiming that because she is to lead a drum battery of 300 people "But this actually doesn't mean anything She is with 300 people around her to protect her." He dismissed the criticism that the role was too sexual for a young girl "It doesn't mean anything - what counts is her costume "She is a queen of the drum section that is coming well dressed and discreet "She is not going to arrive naked; she is a child there seemed to plenty of examples of boys and girls around her age dancing in the carnival parade And the controversy itself did not distract the thousands taking part in the celebrations or the more than 60,000 watching from the stands The heatwave which has left Rio one of the hottest places in the world this week also failed to diminish the energy of those taking part in the parade Among those watching this year's event was the pop star Madonna who was a guest of Rio's Governor Making your way along the 700m of the purpose-built Sambadrome takes more than an hour and along the way judges mark each school for everything from their musical and dancing skills to the quality of costumes For carnival is not just a spectacle but a contest It also appears divided in some other respects Far from the more exclusive hospitality boxes some 4,000 of the city's poorest citizens sit for free in what is known as "sector zero" There they have a view across the Canal do Mangue a small river that is so heavily polluted that it froths and continually gives off a powerful stench an advertising hoarding promoting the state and local governments and the state run oil company Petrobras runs along a wall at this spot Such a foul mess would be an issue in any city alongside your most prestigious event seems an odd kind of promotion except of course it would not be something that the tourists are expected to see The other irony of the first night of carnival was the tribute by the samba school Beija-Flor to mark 50 years of the Brazilian capital This was remarkably generous given that Rio had its capital status taken from it in 1960 to make way for the new pretender was jailed only last week accused of corruption He was reportedly due to join the carnival parade This was the first carnival since Rio was chosen to stage the 2016 Olympic Games and officials are keen to point to evidence that the city can stage such major events without incident even with 700,000 visitors said to be in the city although a Dutch tourist was reported to have been shot and injured during a robbery But across Rio in the last few days there has been a party atmosphere with neighbourhood or "block" parties going from strength to strength It sometimes seemed that every street - and even occasionally the metro - was moving to the beat of carnival