Carnival is traditionally the feast or season of rejoicing before Lent, observed in Catholic countries with much revelry and merriment. The name comes from Low Latin carnelevamen for carnis levamen, solace of the flesh or body, feasting permitted in anticipation of any fast. Carnival observances declined greatly by 1900, but in some of the cities of Italy, especially Rome, Milan, and Naples, were still a great popular festival, as well as in some parts of Germany and by the later part of the 20th century the greatest carnivals were held in Brazil and the West Indian islands. Some have thought the carnival mainly a survival of the pagan Saturnalia of the Romans, which it much resembles in many of the usages, and in the tricks and mummeries with which it abounds. Research Carnival
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