Rio de Janeiro: Mystery over whether Rio de Janeiro's deeply religious mayor would open the city's carnival Friday or stay away in a break with tradition overshadowed the famous event's first night.
Newly elected Mayor Marcelo Crivella, who is also a high-ranking member of a powerful evangelical church founded by his billionaire uncle, had still given no indication of his plans more than two hours after the annual fiesta was due to kick off.
Every year, Rio's mayor hosts the honorary carnival king, known as Rei Momo, and hands him a big, glittery, symbolic key to the city to get the party started.
This year, to the consternation of carnival lovers, Crivella refused to deny multiple rumors that he planned to boycott the ceremony because of his evangelical distaste for the sexy carnival.
A deputy of the mayor, who was elected in October, announced he would take over the duty.
However, at Sambodromo stadium, where the first lavish samba parade was due to start later, there was no sign of either Rei Momo or anyone from City Hall.
A one-sentence statement from the mayor's office sent to the media said that the carnival was "officially open." Crivella's spokesman could not be reached for comment.
Everyone from carnival organizers to the city's brass band that had come to play during the ceremony stood about looking bemused.
The family that traditionally is guardian of the key posed for photographs, then put the treasured object back in a special bag.
"If he doesn't like carnivals, then all he has to do is come here, give the key to Rei Momo, and say 'right, from now on any problems are for him to solve,' and then he can leave!" key guardian member Maurico George de Jesus, 57, told AFP.
One of the band members, who had put away his instrument, added: "We have no idea. We were just told to wait... Don't you know what's going on?"
- Time to stop worrying -
The annual extravaganza marking the last days before Lent in mostly Catholic Brazil is Rio's biggest event of the year. An estimated one million tourists come to the city, with 70,000 packing into the Sambodromo for the big parades.
The first samba parades were to get underway at the Sambodromo stadium late Friday, climaxing with the elite contests running through Sunday and Monday nights.
The chance to have fun can't come soon enough for Rio, which is reeling from a cocktail of crises that make the glory days of hosting South America's first Olympic Games six months ago feel light years away.
Crime is on the rise and 9,000 troops were deployed on the streets in the runup to the carnival after relatives of police officers angry at late payment of salaries tried to blockade police stations.
Add in Brazil's two-year recession, record unemployment and brutal battles between Rio riot police and anti-austerity protesters in the city center earlier this month, and Cariocas -- as city residents are called -- need a break.
"The carnival looks like a party and it is one, but it's much more than that," said writer Gregorio Duvivier, a prominent carnival participant.
"It often serves to help us put aside our problems for a few days."
- Careful whom you kiss -
Certainly the city's party faithful are not expected to pay attention to the growing evangelical movement's dislike for public nudity, drinking and dancing.
The health ministry announced it was distributing some 77 million condoms around the country's carnivals, as well as sending men in condom costumes to join the fun.
The website of Brazil's biggest news organization, Globo, even ran a story Friday titled "Specialists warn about the risks of kissing multiple mouths during carnival."
This year's carnival is also distinctly political, reflecting upheaval in a country still in turmoil after the president was impeached last year.
One top Rio samba school will recreate an embezzlement scandal under France's King Louis XIV -- a theme with distinctly current overtones in corruption-riddled Brazil.
Another school's parade will depict deforestation and destruction of indigenous lands. The performance has infuriated the country's powerful agribusiness lobby.
