Carnival isn’t an official holiday in the US but, it is widely celebrated. The most famous carnival is Mardi Gras in Louisiana, but Puerto Rico, Washington DC, New York and cities across Missouri, Texas, California, and Florida also celebrate it.
You may be wondering why you should bring a carnival celebration into your community. It’s a good opportunity to learn about a different culture and bring music into your HOA.
1 – Hire a band
To make an event out of carnival you could hire a band to play some music while residents dance, chat and eat. The sounds of carnival are so varied. In the Caribbean you have steel bands, and Mardi Gras has a lot of brass bands and some jazz. In South America, there’s a lot of samba, salsa, and cumbia.
All of these types of music are very upbeat and make people want to get up and dance. If February is a bit dreary then you could always have carnival music later in the year, maybe to coincide with London’s Notting Hill carnival!
2 – Dance the night away
If you want to get people moving and shaking, a dance class is always the answer. There are so many great rhythms from around the world to get everyone up and dancing. Samba and salsa are so fun, samba can be danced with someone or on your own.
A lot of the most famous carnival music is rooted in African beats, so you could have an African drumming class.
3 – Cooking class
Mardi Gras happens on Fat Tuesday, which is the last day before Lent. Traditionally, that’s the last day you can eat meat and sugary foods before Lent begins. So, why not take the opportunity to do a cooking class?
You could learn how to cook beignets, which are often eaten at Mardi Gras or you could ask someone in your community to teach other residents a recipe.
You could also do a cooking class for kids, where they learn how to make cupcakes or a no-bake cake.
4 – Arts and crafts
In many countries carnival is about disguising who you are. Venice has the most famous masked carnival, and if it’s good enough for Venice, who isn’t it good enough for? If your community has a lot of children you could have an afternoon of arts and crafts making masks for everyone to wear.
All you would need are mask shapes, paints, glue, stickers, and feathers! You wouldn’t even have to have any scissors, use some pre-cut masks and let the children have fun painting and sticking things onto the masks.
5 – Have a parade
You could have your own parade, get the children in your HOA to join in. They could dress up as different countries or foods or just as whatever they fancy and walk around the HOA with some music if it’s warm enough. If it isn’t you could have a party inside and encourage everyone to dress up and have a good time.
If you can’t afford a band you could create an open playlist so everyone can add music.
While carnival isn’t a traditional holiday to celebrate, it’s definitely a fun one! You could use it to brighten up February or have a carnival celebration later in the year. Have fun partying!
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