00:02Venezuela has begun its carnival celebrations. During these activities, people showcased their culture and different traditions.
00:09Our correspondent Brian Mir will share some of the information.
00:13In the little village of El Jarrillo in the mountains of Venezuela, the Skel-MI Social Club is holding its
00:19first carnival ever,
00:21drawing on the Bavarian tradition of its first residents who founded the community in 1890.
00:38Our mask is a very mischievous character, with a nose that looks like a peach.
00:44Jarrillo has always been a peach-producing town. There was a time when we were the largest peach producer in
00:51the country.
00:56When the community announced they would hold carnival parades this year, older carnival groups from Tovar, a nearby town of
01:0322,000 people with its own Bavarian immigrant heritage, decided to help them out by joining their first parade.
01:12Carnival gives us immense satisfaction. We are making an allusion to the witches in Germany.
01:23There were several groups of them that were dedicated to brewing beer, so we are alluding to our history. We
01:31are the beer witches.
01:36Both communities maintain ties to Germany, and a carnival club in Forchheim Bavaria provided support for Skel to make their
01:43own costumes.
01:44Over the years, the carnival groups in nearby Tovar have been invited to Germany to participate in their carnivals.
01:52Here in Venezuela, we add colored fringes to our costumes to symbolize our national flag, yellow, blue, and red.
02:01In Bavaria, their masks have undergone some variations over time.
02:06But we still maintain the original tradition of wooden masks. They are all made in our town, Tovar. We are
02:13very proud of this.
02:15El Jarrillo's first carnival parade ended in front of the local Catholic church, where the revelers took off their masks,
02:22attended mass, then spilled out onto the streets for a party as busloads of local tourists arrived to join in
02:28on the fun.
02:38Carnival is happiness. As I told the priest in our church, it's always happy.
02:45Like in most countries around the world that celebrate carnival, carnival in Venezuela ends on Ash Wednesday.
02:52Brian Mir, Telesur, El Jarrillo.
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