Carnivals

Shrove Tuesday is the final day of Shrovetide, which marks the end of the pre-Lenten season. Lent begins the following day with Ash Wednesday. Shrove Tuesday is observed in many Christian countries through participating in confession, the ritual burning of the previous year's Holy Week palms, finalizing one's Lenten sacrifice, as well as eating pancakes and other sweets.

dancing, marching, and drumming club

thumb|upright=1.5|The Fight Between Carnival and Lent, by [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1559)]] The Carnivalesque is a literary mode that subverts and liberates the assumptions of the dominant style or atmosphere through humor and chaos. It originated as "carnival" in Mikhail Bakhtin's ''Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics and was further developed in Rabelais and His World. For Bakhtin, "carnival" (the totality of popular festivities, rituals and other carnival forms) is deeply rooted in the human psyche on both the collective and individual levels. Though historically complex and varied, it has o

thumb|An invitation to the Krewe of Proteus ball, New Orleans, 1896 thumb|250px|A "Spanish Krewe" float at Springtime Tallahassee

thumb|right|300 px|Although eleven Elferrat members appear on stage, the council is sometimes composed of more people. The Elferrat (German for "council of eleven") is the council of a kingdom of fools in a carnival.

type of association of carnival enthusiasts

street bands that mobilize crowds and are the main popular expression of Brazilian Carnival

thumb|The Gilles, clad in their costumes and wax masks, wielding sticks used to ward off spirits