RIO DE JANEIRO: A cloud of uncertainty that has hung over Rio de Janeiro throughout the coronavirus pandemic has been lifted, but gloom remains the annual Carnival parade of flamboyant samba schools wont be held in February.
And while the decision is being characterized as a postponement of the event, no new date has been set.
Rios League of Samba Schools, LIESA, announced Thursday night that the spread of the coronavirus has made it impossible to safely hold the traditional parades that are a cultural mainstay and, for many, a source of livelihood.
Carnival is a party upon which many humble workers depend. The samba schools are community institutions, and the parades are just one detail of all that, Luiz Antonio Simas, a historian who specializes in Rios Carnival, said in an interview. An entire cultural and…