Carnival season has started in Brazil and that means scantily clad women wearing giant feathers. We don’t know if ladies in carnival costumes is a fetish, but if not it should be. It takes most of the year to build the outfits these dancers wear. They all have to be made by hand, presumably by some old ladies that probably wore similar outfits in their day. Carnival marks the beginning of the Lenten season, when people abstain in remembrance of Christ’s death. What that has to do with half-naked women dancing on giant floats we’re not sure. Perhaps it’s an obscure theological point we missed in Sunday school. Still, it is the most popular event in all of South America.

The 2012 Brazil Carnival is bigger and brighter than ever as the nation aims to shows the world that it’s ready to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Rio Olympics.
Flanked by samba queens and doused in confetti, Rio de Janeiro’s mayor symbolically handed control of the city over to the Carnival King on Friday to kick off the five-day event.

“I am giving over a city at the height of its rebirth,” Mayor Eduardo Paes said as he relinquished control to Milton Junior, this year’s King Momo. Serving as King Momo, Junior will act as a mythical jester reigning over the city streets full of roving bands, dancing teams, and drinking revelers.

Some 400 street parties were scheduled for the 2012 Rio Carnival with this weekend’s Cordao da Bola Petra parade attracting a record 2.3 million revelers, according to police figures. Rio’s Carnival attendees are expected to spend $640 million and generate roughly 250,000 temporary jobs, mostly in the tourism sector.