Cypriot Carnival

Limassol carnival is the first event of the year that is something to look forward to. It epitomises the Cypriot spirit and verve for me. A ten day long event, when festivity is in the air and everywhere the eye can see. Colourful clowns and elves hang from all roundabouts, as also most government buildings, big crossings, and most popular places. The shops are bursting with costumes and accessories and you will find many spider men, supermen, pirates and dolls walking the roads. The carnival starts ten days before the beginning of lent, the forty day fasting period before the orthodox Easter, with the king carnival leading a parade and announcing the start. In Limassol ten days of partying, fancy dress balls and late evening celebrations culminate into a big parade on Makarios avenue. And that is a parade to see. There are about 70 to 80 floats with various themes, but what is great about them is that they are not serious, tense actors even though they are competing for a prize. They are all having fun, and each troupe includes babies in prams to grandfathers in wheelchairs, all dressed in costumes with spirit to match. Schools have fancy dress parades and every birthday party during that period is a costume party. What sets the carnival time apart though, is the all pervasive spirit of festivity. It is difficult to be immune. It is as though the rainbow has gone all berserk or somebody has emptied buckets of paint on the city and splattered everyone and everything. But more than that is also the feeling that somehow everyone is drunk on a heady mixture that is making them sing and dance unmindful.