February is full of celebrations, so far we've celebrated Lunar New Year, Sami National Day, Galentine's Day, Valentine's Day and the celebrations for Black History Months are still on-going. 
Carnival is something that's routed in tradition, with festivities and personal creativity flourishing.
With the Carnival Shop Update, we bring you nostalgic Carnival items from the archives plus an all new Carnival look curated by SMA's, created by goDesigner triptych.
Maybe you've noticed Rori, Showtime and goKat showing of their takes on fun Carnival looks this past weekend, if you've fallen in love with any of their looks, now is your chance to add them to your collection with the release of the newest goPack.
Carnival means different things to different people, but the one thing everyone seem to agree on is that it's festive, creative, elaborate costumes and a chance to come together to celebrate people through public events, such as parades & street parties.
When you dig into the history of Carnival, historians speculate that the Carnival tradition originated about 5000 years ago with the Egyptians, others believe it to be the Greeks, since there were festivities that occurred around the cycles of nature and the universe in both cultures.
Nowadays Carnival is celebrated around the World and although they have many similarties, they are also each unique in their style and how they choose to celebrate.
USA / New Orleans
In New Orleans, Carnival is equavelent to Mardi Gras. It's a holiday celebrated through food/picnics, music and parades. Whether in costume or not, people are often dressed in purple, green, and gold colors and style themselves with the shiny trinkets that drizzles from the floats of the parades. You'll see a lot of wild costumes, kids with their families will sit on the ground, throw balls, play music, eat great food and watch the crowds walk by between parades.
Brazil / Rio de Janeiro
You can't say Carnival without mentioning the World's largest Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. A full week of explosive, flamboyant, samba-shaking fun with millions of people, locals and visitors, joining the festivities every year since 1723. If you ever find yourself in Rio for the Carnival season, you're in for an unforgettable experience. You can be however under-dressed or overdressed you feel like, as long as you're not totally nude - just like on gSm. If you don't have a costume, locals and tourists are known to channel their creativity and turn all sorts of items and accessories into unique and spectacular costumes. Should you wish to join the parade alongside of some of the World's most talented samba dancers you can do so by reaching out to the local Samba schools. The samba schools each year prepare a Carnival story which they build their floats and costumes around in hopes to win the esteemed Carnival Parade prize. The "Carnaval do Rio de Janeiro" is for sure one of the most extravagant ones. Carnival celebrations are not restricted to the capital, all over the country there are “blocos” (street blocks) that close off traffic, schools and public establishments close early to favour the local festivities.
UK / Notting Hill
Notting Hill Carnival is considered the biggest street festival in Europe, with around one million people coming together in the streets to celebrate London's Caribbean communities, traditions and cultures. It's big, bold, colorful.
The Netherlands
Historically the Netherlands Carnival was a traditional festival to mark the start of lent (fasting period) for the Catholics. It's mostly celebrated in the Southern part of the Netherlands as the more South you go the more Catholic the Country is. In Maastricht a City well known for their elaborate Carnival celebrations, they each year select "The Carnival Prince of Maastrich" also known as The Prince of Fools. The Prince is handed the key to the city by the mayor, a symbolic handing over of the rule of the city to the Prince for the three days of Carnival. In more recent years, the younger population has taking ownership of the festivities and it's now much more about having a fun time, in costimes and meeting up with friends and fellow party people.
Germany /Berlin
In May. Germany has their "Carnival of Cultures" where Berlin is presented from it's most colorful side. During the four festival days, diverse nationalities present their culture through music, dances, performances, visual arts and acrobatics. The highlight of the Carnival is the large parade on Pentecost Sunday in Kreuzberg. Were around half a million people come together to experience dancers, musicians and artists from all over the world perform in the streets. In Berlin you get to experience Brazilian samba dancers, traditional Chinese lion dance, West African drummers as just some of the cultural highlights that prove that Berlin's treasure is it's diversity and internationality.
We acknowledge that Carnival is celebrated in many more Countries and if you'd like to share how Carnival is celebrated in your Country, we would love to hear about it in the forum.
> Carnival looks in shop and goPack now.
> Carnival is celebrated in many Countries each with their own unique style.
> New Orleans and The Netherlands celebrations are routed in religous culture and the start of lent (fasting period)
> Rio is all about Samba
> Notting Hill is the largest European festival, celebrating London's Carribean communities
> Berlin showcases cultures from around the world and prove that Berlin's treasure is it's diversity.
> Join the festivities - chat about your Carnival experiences in the forum!
