All the World's a Carnival
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A dancer from the Mocidade samba school performs on a float during Carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Carnival street parties last for five days in Rio de Janeiro. This year a record-breaking 2.2 million people attended the parades.
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Performers from the Renascer de Jacarepagua samba school parade during Carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro.
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Performers from the Sao Clemente samba school parade during Carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro.
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"Gilles" in traditional costume parade during the Carnival in the streets of Binche on Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras. The Binche Carnival tradition is one of the most ancient and representative of Wallonia and was inscribed in 2008 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
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A float featuring Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lighting a stick of dynamite reading "Atomic program" makes its way through the streets of Duesseldorf during the traditional Rose Monday parade. Carnivalgoers mainly in the Rhine region traditionally celebrate the highlight procession on Rose Monday. The season ends with Ash Wednesday. Many of the floats in Germany this year poked fun at politicians.
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A reveler performs during a carnival parade in Barranquilla, Colombia. Barranquilla's Carnival, a tradition created by locals at the end of the 19th century as a response and to parody the celebration held by European immigrants and aristocracy, was declared a "Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" by the UNESCO in 2003.
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Turning up the heat during a Carnival parade in Barranquilla, Colombia.
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A woman has costume makeup applied for Carnival celebrations in Barranquilla.
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Revelers of the Porto da Pedra samba school perform on top of a float at the Sambadrome during the first night of Rio de Janeiro's famed Carnival. The Rio Carnival, billed as "the greatest show on Earth," generates 250,000 jobs and revenues of $640 million for hotels, bars, and restaurants, according to state estimates.
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Members of the "Morenada Central de Oruro" group parade during the Carnival of Oruro, in the mining town of Oruro, Bolivia. The Carnival of Oruro was inscribed by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008.
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Carnival dancers perform on a float during a parade by the Perola Negra samba school in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
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Malia Miyashiro of California throws beads from a Bourbon Street balcony to Mardi Gras revelers in the French Quarter in New Orleans.
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Carnival performers attend the Rose Monday parade in Mainz, Germany.
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Performers from the Salgueiro samba school parade during Carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio.
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A woman's face is painted during Carnival celebrations along Ipanema beach in Rio de Janiero. Carnival is the grandest holiday in Brazil, annually drawing millions in raucous celebrations culminating on Fat Tuesday before the start of the Catholic season of Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday.
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Carnival fools celebrate in the streets of Duesseldorf, Germany, during the Rose Monday parade.
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A reveler of Beija-Flor samba school in Rio dances during the first night of Carnival at the Sambadrome.
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The Imperatriz Leopoldinense samba school parades during Rio de Janeiro Carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome.
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A reveler of Imperatriz samba school performs during a Carnival parade at the Sambadrome.
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A member of Mohacs Busok steps out from the local base ready for the Carnival masquerade in Croatia. The Busojaras is an annual celebration in the town of Mohacs that marks the end of the Carnival season.
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A reveler poses on the Piazza San Marco during the Venice Carnival. The 2012 edition of the Venice Carnival is titled "Life is theater! It's time to get masked."
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A Brazilian reveler dons makeup during Carnival celebrations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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A Hindu devotee dressed as a demon participates in a Shivratri festival procession in Allahabad, India. The Hindu festival Shivratri is dedicated to the worship of Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and regeneration.
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Revelers of the Mangueira samba school perform during a parade on the second night of Carnival at the Sambadrome in Rio.
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A float depicts German Chancellor Angela Merkel wearing an umbrella skirt symbolizing the Europen bailout fund during the traditional Carnival parade in Duesseldorf. The street spectacles in the Carnival centers of Duesseldorf, Mainz, and Cologne, watched by hundreds of thousands of people, are the highlights in Germany's Carnival season on Rose Monday.
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Revelers cheer at the Beatles-themed street party at the Aterro do Flamengo urban park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The group that organizes the party gives the Beatles repertoire a Brazilian tweak, adapting "All My Loving" to the peppy beat of a traditional Carnival "marchinha," or march, and infusing "Hard Day's Night" with a Rio funk sound.
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Buddhists prepare to celebrate the 2,600th anniversary of Myanmar's landmark Shwedagon Pagoda's establishment in Yangon, Myanmar. Vast crowds were gathering at Myanmar's most sacred Buddhist shrine to celebrate a festival banned for more than 20 years under the former military government.
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An Indian Hindu devotee touches the foot of a statue of Lord Ram as he prays at a Lord Shiva temple during Shivratri festival celebrations in New Delhi.
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A reveler of Mocidade Alegre samba school dances ahead of drummers during the second night of Carnival celebrations in Sao Paulo.
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Dancers take part in the "Diablada" (Devils' dance) in the mining town of Oruro, Bolivia.
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Revelers of the Academicos do Grande Rio samba school perform during the second night of Carnival at the Sambadrome.
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Giant mannequins are marched along the Mardi Gras parade route in downtown Crested Butte, Colo., on Fat Tuesday. Hundreds of people crowded Elk Avenue during the annual event.
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