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Feature: Portuguese brush aside economic woes for carnival celebration

Xinhua, February 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

Over 4,000 people on Tuesday paraded in Portugal's biggest carnival in Torres Vedras City, about 70 km north of Lisbon, in boisterous and colorful masquerade groups celebrating "love", this year's theme.

Socialist Party leader Antonio Costa was present at the the five-day event which began last Friday and enjoyed the extravaganza, laughing when he was confronted with a float depicting him in a giant caricature as Jesus the Redeemer.

Amid a public outcry at the government's move to abolish Carnival Tuesday as a public holiday for civil servants and employees from other public sectors, and with local businesses complaining that people were losing the festive spirit and not investing enough in fancy costumes, Costa told reporters that the Carnival was "very important" for the economy and promised that he would make the date a bank holiday again if he is elected as the prime minister in the coming general elections.

"It is urgent to retake the freedom to be able to celebrate the Carnival, because it is a moment of decompression, of joy, of family reunions, and also a moment for people to celebrate and joke about serious and less serious things," he said.

The carnival certainly added a dose of fun in such a sluggish economic environment.

More than 4,000 people paraded down the confetti-covered streets, which were also filled with the sounds of trumpets and drums from six philharmonic orchestras as well as a pop music called "pimba".

Vanda Amaral, 58, unemployed, was accompanied by her daughter. They were both dressed as nuns who, in her words, "had escaped from a convent."

"Nuns are very prudish but actually I'm the opposite of that. I love love, which is why I came here. I come every year. Life is hard so we have to make the most of these moments to have some fun," she told Xinhua.

The sunny weather helped attract over 50,000 people on Tuesday, the last day of the carnival. Some 350,000 visitors from different parts of Portugal came to the city during the past five days.

The carnival of Torres Vedras has been held for almost 100 years and is hoping to gain international recognition, as the local council plans to apply for a World Intangible Heritage for this traditional event. Endi