You want to know what's wrong with this damned country? Well do you?

[underpants]

We need more of THIS...at LEAST once a year

From around the world-WE are the only ones not doing this right now (except for New Orleans and a few scattered other places)

http://d.yimg.com/img.news.yahoo.com/util/anysize/400,http%3A%2F%2Fd.yimg.com%2Fa%2Fp%2Frids%2F20090221%2Fi%2Fr557502891.jpg
A member of the "Bloco da Lama" (Block of the Mud) group dives into the water on Jabaquara beach in the city of Paraty, 263 km (163 miles) from Rio de Janeiro, February 21, 2009. During Carnival, people dress up as cave men, cover themselves with mud and parade through the streets, among others. Carnival festivities throughout Brazil run through February 24.
REUTERS/Bruno Domingos (BRAZIL)

http://d.yimg.com/img.news.yahoo.com/util/anysize/400,http%3A%2F%2Fd.yimg.com%2Fa%2Fp%2Frids%2F20090221%2Fi%2Fr2390571130.jpg
Members of the "Morenada Central Cocanis" perform during the Carnival parade in Oruro, some 200 km (124 miles) south of La Paz, February 21, 2009. Boisterous partying and religious fervor mingle in Bolivia's biggest Carnival celebration in Oruro, a mining and commercial city of more than 200,000 people at the heart of South America's poorest country.
REUTERS/David Mercado (BOLIVIA)

http://d.yimg.com/img.news.yahoo.com/util/anysize/400,http%3A%2F%2Fd.yimg.com%2Fa%2Fp%2Fap%2F20090221%2Fcapt.36457c700da64569b3c0af80706b0873.aptopix_colombia_carnival_xrm103.jpg
A member of Selva Africana dancing group displays the mask he'll wear during carnival parades in Barranquilla, in northern Colombia, Friday, Feb. 20, 2009. The Barranquilla carnival, that starts this weekend, is listed by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
(AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

http://d.yimg.com/img.news.yahoo.com/util/anysize/400,http%3A%2F%2Fd.yimg.com%2Fa%2Fp%2Fap%2F20090221%2Fcapt.0ad29d5edd604760aacc96386b17605b.mardi_gras_new_orleans_laab110.jpg
Two revelers embrace on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans Friday, Feb. 20, 2009. Carnival revelers were greeted with good weather for the weekend before Mardi Gras Feb. 24th.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

[drmeow]

1. Do you want the Catholism

that goes with it?

[Bobbieo]

3. Good Question!!!!!!

[EFerrari]

5. Carnival has worked very well even in protestant nations

as a subversive popular force. That's what Shakespeare's theater district was about, for example. You went across the river and heard guys diss the government, all governments, your mother in law and your son in law, lol, and ate and drank and danced and got a good hangover.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. A year-round entertainment district, and a yearly festival are quite diffferent

Especially with one as a counterpart to a religious fast.

Carnival is the equivalent of the Eid at the end of Ramadan. It's also akin to Christmas. And yet, many people on DU decry the over-consumption at Christmas.

[EFerrari]

8. Yes and no. Yes, because you in theory have access to it "year round"

but, no, in the sense that most working people didn't unless they lived there. You could say it was like an early Vegas except the world was still small enough so that if you flew into Vegas, you'd recognize your minister off in a dark corner with a prostitute, something not many of us can say today. The district was more like something people do on Sundays and holidays and the calendar of Church observances were present there, too. It was Southwark, not Vegas.

I don't want to claim a false equivalence but the district did have many things in common with carnival and with festival. It was so "bad" that not only was it the subject of many, many sermons but also the government stepped in to spy and to regulate it -- even going as far as closing the theaters for "plague" when there was no plague.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. So, more akin to spectator sports, then

something you can do frequently, if you have a little spare money. All they had to do was walk across a bridge. No transport involved. And not that different from north of the river, really - The Theatre was originally on that side, just outside the city walls.

[EFerrari]

16. This is OT but I think it was different. Reading around this topic,

I once saw a map of all the live entertainment venues that were closed down when the theater companies were restricted to only two and the Stationer really took charge of active censorship. There were like 30 of them -- little hole in the wall places and all of a sudden, the Council made them all illegal.

(At the time, my buddies were talking and writing as if the two big capacity theaters were such a great advancement but, no one was really looking at how constricted that whole space became for a while, how limited or concentrated or regulated.)

So, it probably was true that same type of rebellious energy that motivates Texan tourists to bare their chests on Bourbon Street on holidays was concentrated in Southwark for a period of time. It was pretty much deliberately funneled there as far as I can tell.

[hfojvt]

2. apparently you were not at my sister's house for New Years Eve

and you missed the fourth of July too and Saint Patrick's Day.

[stevedeshazer]

4. Good point, but we do have Burning Man!

[HereSince1628]

6. As a person with 2 degrees from S. Illionois, I appreciate the value of partying hard

I just don't hardly see a need to party in anticipation of giving up on the GOP for Lent.

PLEASE Babs! DO NOT SHOW ME YOUR BREASTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[leftstreet]

9. Now, now. Plenty of people have known how to party in the USA

[MrScorpio]

10. Not to mention France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands

My four years in that region of Europe yielded a ton o' fun

[underpants]

13. No pictures available

yet

:bounce:

[MrScorpio]

15. I didn't take any when I was there

Too busy partying however

However, Google "Fasching" and get this:

[pipi_k]

11. I think we definitely need

more organized silliness in this country.

Doesn't necessarily have to be associated with religious festivals or holidays or whatever.

Just plain silly fun.

Just because.


:7

[cherokeeprogressive]

14. Doo Dah...

[Swamp Rat]

17. Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez!!!

:party:

[EFerrari]

18. Hey! I've been stalking you all over DU!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5100276