Carnaval!

Every year Merida, Mexico hosts one of the largest and best Carnavals in the world.  This year locals and travelers alike put on their dancing shoes, their colorful costumes, and headdresses to enjoy internationally known artists from the worlds of music and dance, parades, and daily events that will help bring out your wild side.

This year’s Carnaval, titled “Mérida Mística”, brought to the Yucatan internationally known artists to enthrall us with their music and dancing.   From Salsa bands to traditional folk music, from lovely women and handsome men in traditional costumes presenting traditional Mexican dance to brightly costumed modern dancers, Carnaval week held something for everyone.  But music and dance are but one part of Carnaval.  There are parades, from the opening parade with floats featuring school-age children, to the more adult-themed parties and parades later in the week.  Men and women dress up in their most colorful costumes representing their long heritage in the Yucatan. 

The week begins with the “Burning of the Bad Humor” in the main square, or zocalo.  Each night  seed a parade through town with a different theme.  Thursday is the pre-school parade, followed on Friday by the Corso parade, and the week continues with the Fantasy Parade, Bachata Parade, Regional Parade, the Battle of the Flowers, and the weekends up with the Burning of Juan Carnaval. 

Don’t miss this great week of fun next February; come to Merida and let your hair down!