Samba - The Strong Roots from which Happiness blooms
"Samba, the strong root from which happiness blooms."
Today, I’d like to share a brief reflection on samba and Carnival — a glimpse into their essence, offering some basic insights, while infusing a poetic and playful tone, characteristic of this tradition that has been winning hearts and gaining strength over the decades.
We can say that we are celebrating a century of samba schools, and this presents a perfect opportunity to reflect on this tree with deep roots, abundant branches, and a history of bearing many fruits.
What I share here is merely my personal perception, offered swiftly, with the intention of introducing the theme and sparking curiosity.
I believe samba is the root from which happiness grows. While I see happiness as stemming from our connection to the source of life itself, samba embodies this essence. In its unique way of communication, samba carries a message akin to that of many indigenous peoples I work with and study, and this message can also be found within the realm of medicine.
We witness how peoples who have endured immense suffering, having lived through more than 500 years of various struggles, continue to carry within them the spirit of joy and the ability to embrace happiness, as reflected in their cultural and spiritual practices. I believe that spirituality, above all, should guide us toward experiencing and sharing this spirit of happiness.
Current Competitions
Each year, the competition becomes more intense. The samba schools in the Special Group have between 60 and 70 minutes to perform their parade at the Sambadrome. The schools competing in the Access Group, also known as Series A, give their best and put on exciting parades in hopes of joining the group of top competitors. A selection of twelve samba schools, the famous Special Group, competes over two days to win the competition. Carnival Tuesday is dedicated to the children's parade, showcasing music, theater, dance, samba history, and art.
Carnival Music and Themes
All samba schools present stories, which are the themes of their parades. These themes vary from politics, sports, history, and arts, with a spectacular display of colorful costumes, choreography, and Carnival music. The competitions are innovative and full of surprises for the audience. Samba history tells us that Africans passed the rhythm of samba to the Brazilians during the period of slavery. Today, this forms an important part of Brazilian cultural heritage. The largest samba schools are composed of percussionists, dancers, musicians, and talented artists, with around 3,000 people. Many members work behind the scenes, paying attention to every detail of the parade to ensure the participants compete for the grand prize.
Carnival Dates and Location
From the beginning of the samba school parades until 1984, the streets of Rio de Janeiro were the main stage. Then, the renowned architect Oscar Niemeyer designed the Sambadrome. Carnival in Rio is always scheduled 40 days before Easter Sunday, according to the Catholic calendar. Since the date of Lent varies each year, Carnival dates do as well. In 2025, the parades will take place on February 28th and March 1st (Access Group), March 2nd and 3rd (Special Group), and March 8th (Champions Parade).
My Aproach about the Samba and the Carnival
Spirituality cannot be separated from culture, just as it is inseparable from politics, the economy, and the reality experienced by human beings. After all, spirituality encompasses everything that exists. But today, I wish to share a brief message about one of the great pillars of Brazilian culture, which has conquered the world and become the greatest cultural and artistic spectacle on Earth — the samba schools’ parade and the Brazilian Carnival.
I would like to say that Carnival, when understood correctly, is not just a mere festivity or a senseless waste of time. Beyond being an effusive expression of joy and happiness, opening space for creativity and the expression of profound ideas and feelings, it is a portal in time, presenting “the world turned upside down,” where the dreamlike and the real, the possible and the impossible, merge; where the mythology of diverse traditions fuses together, and where the oppressed people, for many centuries and even to this day, have the opportunity to tell their "version of history."
For a long time, samba was forbidden in Brazil, just as indigenous and Afro-descendant spiritual traditions were. Not only were they prohibited, but they were also suppressed, marginalized, and criminalized. Samba is vast, and like Brazilian Carnival, it encompasses many types and forms, with each region, from north to south, contributing its own cultural manifestations, in an explosion of vitality, memory, resilience, and resistance.
Today, I would like to comment on the samba schools of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, which since the 1930s have been singing in their parades many important elements of Brazil’s socio-political reality. Since the late 1950s, in a context of greater political openness, these schools began to incorporate themes of history, politics, economics, and world culture, always filled with passions that deeply resonate with the experience of being human, incarnated on this earth.
Currently, Brazil is considered the country with the greatest cultural diversity in the world. Its roots, indigenous, mixed with the African force brought here through slavery, form the foundation of our culture, to which the Christian influence and later, immigrants from numerous countries were added, drawn by the natural riches and beauty of this land. Here, a friendly, gentle, loving, and supportive people were formed, among many other qualities.
Despite all the miseries of colonization, the persecutions, and the cultural, media, and military dictatorships, ancestral traditions remain present, alive, expressed, and manifested as the root of a radiant, vibrant, creative, colorful human culture, full of wisdom and stories to tell.
I don’t even need to say that I love samba, that I love Carnival, and that I stand and applaud the samba schools, showing the strength of the suburbs, the favelas, the ghettos, the crossroads, and the broken neighborhoods...
The strength of a people who unify and give voice to many races. The strength of the will to live, where Faith and connection with God, respect, and the appreciation of diversity are the roots that keep us standing tall. Long live Samba, long live all the "bambas," long live Carnival, long live the great cultural and spiritual diversity of the Brazilian people.
I feel honored and grateful to have been born here, to know, experience, practice, and expand to the world a little of Brazil’s cultural and spiritual traditions.
If you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend taking a look and appreciating the creativity, energy, and wisdom the schools brought to the avenue this year, 2025.
Faith, Happiness, Joy, Axé, History, Roots, Wisdom, Love in the Heart, and Samba in the Feet to not lose your way in the paths of illusion!
With Love and Joy,
Txai Edu
The sky will brighten,
Illuminating the west side of the city,
And God will parade
To see the wizard recreate Mocidade.
The light that comes to us from the first star,
Born of dust in the Southern Cross,
From the divine plasma of carpenter hands,
Candeia resurges in the dark, in this blue.
Does the limbo of imagination
Pervert intelligence?
Man, with his ambition,
Ignores reason, loses sight of Science.
Will there be Carnival, without my rhythm?
With wings in digital tones,
At the end of existence,
Tell me, who will bear the consequences?
If Mocidade dreams,
In the infinite, write
Verses by moonlight, let it be!
When the future returns,
Youth will believe
That every star can be reborn.
The sickly green of hope
Gasps upon the bed of greed.
Those who live by the cost of demands
Pour their fake tears.
Fire killing the forest,
Animals dying in heat,
Fever on what little remains,
The river's waters dry up.
And life goes on, hanging by a thread.
I sailed,
In the eagerness to find myself, I was moved,
I remembered the tightrope I crossed.
So many turns in this life,
The hand that makes the bomb regrets,
Makes the samba and learns
To surrender, body and soul, on the avenue.
Lirics of the Samba School Mocidade Independente de Padre Miguel, RJ. 2025
Indigenous Resistence
Greetings global family,
Faced with so many challenges that we are experiencing, I decided to encourage a little more dialogue about important issues of our time and publish relevant and instructive articles more frequently. As the articles tend to be longer and more elaborate, I will publish part of them here and in full on the website. I'm starting in the month of April, which in Brazil is celebrated and articulated as the month of Indigenous Resistance, bringing some elements and data for reflection and inspiration.
Not everything is flowers, but not everything is thorns either. In these articles I will try to highlight challenges, but also bring good news. Cultivate hope and encourage concrete actions that can engage us in regenerative solutions
Speaking about indigenous resistance, the most official data we found indicates that in the 16th century, when the colonizers arrived in Brazil, we had approximately 2,500,000 individuals. The 1998 report, which resulted in a publication marking the 500th anniversary of the “discovery of Brazil”, indicated that there were around 302,000 individuals. Unfortunately, what we can observe is a reality of persecution, depopulation, a lot of pain and a great battle for survival. Unfortunately, even after all this massacre, the persecution continues to this day.
In Brazil, we can say that attacks remain active uninterruptedly:
Temporal Framework: Bolsonaro Government Bill that is still being processed in Brazil trying to revoke the right of indigenous people to the Lands where they have lived for millennia
Timber companies: We see constant invasions of people and companies murdering and killing indigenous people within their lands to exploit wood, among other resources
Dams: In Brazil, several hydroelectric projects were carried out, altering territories and forcing migrations
Loss of Culture: Since the arrival of indigenous colonizers, they have suffered from the introduction of religions, languages, customs and worldviews that aim to delegitimize their ancestral knowledge and practices. In addition to the loss of their territories, which are closely linked to the preservation of Culture.
Among many other challenges that threaten their existence, which I will not dwell on today.
For more information on indigenous resistance, I recommend the Text by Sônia Guajajara and Eloy Terena, where they discuss in detail the challenges faced by different peoples and how indigenous people have been acting to resist. We will explore more about this topic in future articles.
Follow the link:
https://apiboficial.org/2022/12/30/retrospectiva-2022-resistencia-do-brasil-indigena/
I also highly recommend the following publication, available in Portuguese, English and Spanish, which provides an international overview of resistance actions, as well as pointing out concrete forms of engagement.
https://apiboficial.org/publicacoes/
This year the twentieth edition of Acampamento Terra Livre (Free Earth Camp) will be held, one of the active milestones in the struggle for the right to life, to territories and a manifestation of the strength, colors, spirit and ability to articulate the indigenous peoples of Brazil. The event takes place every year in the country's capital, where thousands of indigenous people, from different ethnicities and regions of the country, gather in a camp in one of the main squares in Brasília. This year it will take place from the 22nd to the 26th of April. This is a great opportunity to learn more about traditions, struggles, leaders, participate in various activities and also support the cause. We will have the presence of thousands of individuals and hundreds of ethnicities. In Brazil, despite persecution and extermination, resistance continues and what still remains is immeasurable wealth and strength.
I will be present at the camp, and I will be very happy to meet you! I also leave here the link with complete information about the event. If you want to know more, you can get in touch and we will do our best to answer your questions and support you in any way possible!
https://apiboficial.org/atl2024/
I wish to share some more good news and express the following:
The indigenous contribution in Brazil and the world is of great value to our society, nature and humanity. These people helped us domesticate many plants that are important to our lives and have been caring for and cultivating nature for millennia. I personally have already received healings and knowledge that transformed my life.
The simplicity and connection with nature, the ability to observe, the nobility of heart, the development of tribalism and other efficient, creative and inclusive governance systems. The practice of cooperation, combined with its simple, direct and experimentable philosophy, has helped humanity understand the meaning of life. His medicines have won the world over and today are helping to cure countless diseases. And there are many more important contributions and foundations that we will gradually develop and share together.
If there is an important word for me, which I value and learn from indigenous traditions and example, it is called Respect. Respect for life, respect for existence, for the coexistence of diversity. Respect for all creation and the right to exist. Respect and care for nature. If we don't respect and value those who feed us and the natural environment we are part of, what we are doing in this existence? What future can have a humanity that sees the Earth as a source of resources that can be transformed into merchandise for the generation and appropriation of wealth achieve?
According to the UN, even though they represent only 5% of the world's population, indigenous peoples preserve around 80% of the world's biodiversity in their territories. This stems from his worldview, which is not limited to seeing only what is within our reach, but goes much further.
In the current context of climate change and an urgent need for regenerative actions, ancestral knowledge and way of life has an indisputable, urgent and necessary role and relevance. I recommend everyone seek out more information about ancestral wisdom and ways of life, I'm sure you will be surprised and have the possibility of expanding your perception of life in many ways.
“Tropical forests are the most efficient terrestrial barriers against the advance of climate change. Without us, there will be no Amazon; and, without it, the world as we know it will no longer exist. Because we are the Amazon: its land and biodiversity are our body; its rivers flow through our veins. Our ancestors not only preserved it for millennia, they helped cultivate it. We live in it and for it. And over the centuries, we have given our own lives to protect it.”
There are many things to talk about... and little by little we will have the opportunity to continue delving deeper... I will be attentive to continue producing small introductory articles on various topics related to ancestry, resistance, wisdom and indigenous worldview, among others. In addition, I will also be presenting several initiatives and concrete action proposals where you can get involved and be part of important solutions for humanity and the globe.
And, for those who don't know, at the end of 2023, Ailton Krenak was elected the first Indigenous member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. His inauguration, however, took place last week, April 5, 2023. Krenak is an example of determination, overcoming, wisdom, creativity, insight, assertiveness, among others. Professor, writer, journalist, environmentalist, leader and activist for the indigenous cause, author of several books, he is a notable indigenous person who brings a very important contribution and message to our times.
I am very happy with the news and celebrate this victory of ancestral traditions. I leave below the Instagram link of the dear, great Ailton Krenak for those of you who want to delve deeper and get to know this old man full of wisdom.
https://www.instagram.com/_ailtonkrenak/
“Life goes through everything, through a stone, the ozone layer, glaciers. Life goes from the oceans to dry land, crossing from north to south, like a breeze, in all directions. Life is this crossing of the living organism on the planet into an immaterial dimension.” Ailton Krenak
Bye Bye Familly. With Joy and Hope.