A wild (orgy) 3 day celebration (Feb 14-16), 40 days before Easter. It starts with a parade on Saturday night and finishes on Fat Tuesday with the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday after which one is supposed to abstain from all bodily pleasures. Carnival with all its excesses, celebrates as a profane event, can be considered an act of farewell to the pleasures of the flesh. They put on mask or cover their faces so that God will not know who they are as they committ these pagan acts. Along with these pagan acts they throw water ballons filled with ink or paint at people and vehicles. The also paint a lot of grattie on buildings.The most births in Bolivia take place nine months from now. Here are a few pictures.
Anyway it is a holiday with no school.
A wild (orgy) 3 day celebration (Feb 14-16), 40 days before Easter. It starts with a parade on Saturday night and finishes on Fat Tuesday with the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday after which one is supposed to abstain from all bodily pleasures. Carnival with all its excesses, celebrates as a profane event, can be considered an act of farewell to the pleasures of the flesh. They put on mask or cover their faces so that God will not know who they are as they committ these pagan acts. Along with these pagan acts they throw water ballons filled with ink or paint at people and vehicles. The also paint a lot of grattie on buildings.The most births in Bolivia take place nine months from now. Here are a few pictures. 
Anyway it is a holiday with no school.
An interesting thing happened last year during carnaval. The local news media decided to show the "two faces of carnaval". In a live report on that Monday evening, they had a split screen showing on one side the dancing/drunkenness/group rivalries/vandalism in the streets. On the other side, they showed our church's youth camp with clips from the worship and praise times and also the healthy forms of recreation taking place there with group games. It may have been unintentional, but that news report showed the stark difference between the two roads that we can take...one leading to destruction and the other to life.
ReplyDeletePraise the Lord that YEARS ago, WGM missionary Bev Lewis followed the Lord's leading to organize youth camps during Carnaval weekend to give the young people of Santa Cruz a way of escape from the temptations of Carnaval. This weekend, thousands of young people in Santa Cruz have taken the opportunity to participate in church camps, having fun in a wholesome way and drawing near to the Lord at the same time.
Posted by Cynthia Zimmerman, WGM Bolivia, Feb. 16