even certified by the guinness book of world records as the largest such celebration on the planet, the week-long bacchanal is an opportunity for visitors and locals, the rich and the poor to cast off the trappings of their daily lives and celebrate heartily before the aestheticism of lent brings the revelry to a close.

from its inception in 1723, carnival has been a time in which inhibitions are shed, identities are obscured and the rigid distinctions of class, race and gender, fall by the wayside.  

in the celebration's initial manifestations - and on into today - the rich would don the clothes of the lower classes and poor people would dress up as kings and queens, totally upending what remains a relatively strict social order for a week of delirious freedom.