170 Fun Facts About Carnival

The word 'carnival' is often traced to the Late Latin phrase carne levare. What does it mean?

The name points at Lent: the season was the last chance to eat up meat and fat before the fast.

According to Guinness World Records, which city's carnival is the largest in the world?

The street carnival puts around two million people a day on the city's streets, on top of the samba-school parades.

Which pope decided that the Lenten fast would begin on Ash Wednesday?

Gregory reigned from 590 to 604, so the pre-Lent blowout has had a fixed finish line for over 1,400 years.

In the Rhineland, the first modern carnival parade was held in Cologne in which year?

The Festkomitee Kölner Karneval, which still runs the parades and stage shows, was founded the same year.

Which Belgian town's carnival is famous for its Gilles, performers in wax masks and wooden clogs?

The Gilles appear mostly on Shrove Tuesday, and UNESCO listed the event as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage in 2003.

Recife's Galo da Madrugada is described as the world's largest what?

A bloco is a street parade group; this one draws well over a million revellers to central Recife on Carnival Saturday.

What is the frenetic UNESCO-listed carnival music-and-dance style of Recife and Olinda called?

Dancers perform acrobatic steps while holding tiny colourful umbrellas.

Which South American country's Diablada carnival became a UNESCO Masterpiece of Intangible Heritage in 2001?

It is the Carnival of Oruro, a mining city where more than 28,000 dancers take part.

Which city's famous carnival was outlawed entirely in 1797, with the wearing of masks strictly forbidden?

The ban came under Emperor Francis II after the fall of the Venetian Republic; the festival stayed dead for nearly two centuries.

After a long absence, in which year did the Venetian carnival return?

The revival was pushed by the Italian government to bring back Venice's history and culture, and now draws about three million visitors a year.

Legend dates the Venetian carnival to a military victory in 1162 over the patriarch of which city?

The people supposedly danced in St Mark's Square to celebrate the defeat of Ulrich II.

Which Venetian mask was a small strapless black velvet oval, worn by patrician women?

It had no mouth opening, which made the wearer mute as well as anonymous.

The long-beaked Venetian plague-doctor mask originates from a 17th-century French physician named what?

The beak was stuffed with herbs and perfumes in the belief they would filter out bad air.

Venetian mask-makers, the mascherari, had their own guild with a statute dated 10 April of which year?

Mask wearing was allowed from St Stephen's Day, 26 December, right through to midnight on Shrove Tuesday.

Cologne's 'fifth season' is declared open on 11 November at precisely what time?

The 11.11 on 11/11 tradition is shared across the Rhineland, then everything goes quiet until the street carnival before Lent.

What is the traditional Kölsch greeting shouted throughout Cologne's carnival?

Shout 'Helau' in Cologne and you will be marked as a visitor from rival Düsseldorf.

In Cologne's ruling trio, the Dreigestirn, who traditionally portrays the Jungfrau (maiden)?

The trio of Prinz, Bauer and Jungfrau is granted its titles anew every year.

Cologne's carnival traditionally ends on the night of Ash Wednesday with the burning of what?

The Nubbel is a straw effigy that takes the blame for all the sins committed during the crazy days.

Roughly how many tons of candy are thrown to spectators at Cologne's Rose Monday parade each year?

Add 700,000 chocolate bars and 220,000 boxes of pralines to that; the sweets are known as Kamelle.

The first Carnival festival in Rio occurred in which year?

That first festivity was the entrudo, a rowdy Portuguese import involving throwing water, flour and mud at passers-by.

Which samba school holds the most Rio parade championships, with 22?

Its symbol is an eagle and its colours are blue and white.

Rio's first samba-school parades, led by Estácio de Sá and Mangueira, were in which year?

By the 2020s Rio's samba schools numbered more than 200, split into five leagues.

Rio's Sambadrome, the parade stadium for the samba schools, was designed by which architect?

It runs along a 700-metre stretch of Marquês de Sapucaí street and was completed in 1984.

At the 2016 Olympics, Rio's Sambadrome hosted the marathon finish and which other sport?

The parade avenue made a long, straight shooting range with grandstands already in place.

Founded in 1928, what was the name of the first samba school, whose name means 'Let Me Speak'?

The 'school' label is popularly said to come from the schoolyard where the group first rehearsed.

In 1950, Dodô and Osmar invented the trio elétrico by playing through Bahia's carnival from which car?

Their instrument was the pau elétrico, the 'electric log'; today's trios are giant trucks topped with a stage.

Salvador's carnival officially lasts how many days, ending at noon on Ash Wednesday?

About 2.5 million people take part, 1.5 million of them tourists.

J'ouvert, the pre-dawn start of Trinidad's two carnival days, is French for what?

Revellers cover themselves in mud, oil and paint before the prettier daytime bands take over.

Trinidad's carnival dates back to the 1780s and an influx of immigrants from where?

The planters brought masquerade balls; the enslaved population answered with the Canboulay celebrations that shaped the modern festival.

Canboulay, the festival behind Trinidad's carnival, takes its name from the French for what?

It recalled the gangs sent to fight fires on sugar plantations.

Which traditional Trinidad carnival character is a stilt dancer of African origin?

The towering figure was believed to protect villages by seeing evil coming from far away.

The steelpan re-emerged in Trinidad in 1937 as an orchestra of frying pans, dustbin lids and what?

Bamboo 'tamboo bamboo' bands had filled the gap after skin drums were banned, and steel took over from there.

Which Trinidad carnival character parodies the dress of 18th-century French aristocratic women?

She is played as a voluptuous, exaggerated grande dame, a mockery of the plantation mistresses.

The first outdoor Notting Hill festival, in 1966, was organised by whom?

Laslett was unaware of Claudia Jones's earlier indoor Caribbean Carnival of 1959 when she raised the idea.

Notting Hill Carnival, Europe's largest street festival, takes place over which weekend?

It draws around two million people over the two days.

Who is thought to have brought the very first sound system to Notting Hill Carnival, in 1973?

Steel bands had been the only music until then; today dozens of static sound systems line the route.

Toronto's Caribbean Carnival began in 1967 as a gift from the Caribbean community marking what?

It has been billed as North America's largest festival, with over a million visitors for the Grand Parade.

Which US city claims the country's oldest official Carnival celebration, begun in 1703?

It predates New Orleans's organised celebrations by more than a century.

Since 1956, which snack has been a signature throw from parade floats in Alabama's oldest carnival city?

The first ones were tossed by children on the Queen's float in the Comic Cowboys parade.

Which secret society, founded by 21 businessmen in 1856, staged New Orleans's first Mardi Gras parade?

They organised as a secret society to stage a formal, torch-lit night parade.

In which year did Louisiana declare Mardi Gras a legal holiday?

That was just three years after Rex first paraded and proclaimed the purple, green and gold.

The Krewe of Zulu is famous for handing out which prized decorated throw?

They are recorded as far back as 1910, when they were given out in their natural 'hairy' state.

New Orleans's Carnival season opens each year on which date?

That is Twelfth Night, or Epiphany, and the season runs until midnight before Ash Wednesday.

The first carriers of the flambeaux, the flaming torches that light New Orleans night parades, were whom?

Spectators still toss coins to the flambeaux carriers as they dance and spin the torches.

What small object is traditionally hidden inside a Mardi Gras king cake?

The baby symbolises Jesus; the French galette des rois hides a fève instead.

Whoever finds the hidden figure in a king cake is traditionally expected to do what?

Buying next year's cake counts too, so the tradition conveniently renews itself.

In the Mardi Gras colour scheme, purple stands for what?

Green is faith and gold is power, and king cakes are dusted with all three.

The Gilles, the clown-like stars of a Belgian carnival, throw what to (and sometimes at) the crowd?

They are considered a gift and a blessing, though shop windows along the route are boarded up.

The huge hats worn by the Gilles on Shrove Tuesday afternoon are adorned with the feathers of which bird?

A hat can cost more than 300 dollars just to rent for the day.

In Ivrea's carnival food fight, townspeople on foot pelt teams riding in what?

The battle re-enacts a revolt sparked by a miller's daughter, la Mugnaia, who refused a tyrant's droit du seigneur.

The long-nosed, floppy-eared Marimondas are the most popular costume at which country's biggest carnival?

Barranquilla's carnival was declared a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage in 2003.

Barranquilla's carnival ends citywide with the burial of which character?

The mock funeral is a local counterpart to Spain's Burial of the Sardine.

The Carnival of Oruro is held in honour of the Virgen del Socavón, the Virgin of the what?

Oruro is a mining city, and the procession ends at her sanctuary; over 28,000 dancers and 10,000 musicians take part.

Bonhomme, the snowman mascot of the Quebec Winter Carnival, wears a red toque and what else?

The ceinture fléchée is a traditional woven sash of French Canada, and Bonhomme has been wearing it since the modern carnival began in 1955.

What hot alcoholic drink is traditionally drunk to keep warm at the Quebec Winter Carnival?

It is a mix of red wine and spirits, often served in a plastic cane.

The earliest record of the Nice Carnival, from 1294, came from which count?

Charles wrote of passing 'the joyous days of carnival' there, making it one of the oldest carnivals in the world; by the 2010s it drew over a million visitors in two weeks.

What is thrown in the famous 'battles' staged on Nice's Promenade des Anglais during carnival?

Costumed performers on floats throw thousands of mimosa, lilies and gerberas into the crowd.

Basel's Fasnacht, Switzerland's biggest carnival, lasts exactly how many hours?

It starts on the Monday after Ash Wednesday at precisely 4 am, when the city lights go out for the Morgestraich, and ends Thursday at 4 am.

Basel's Cliques march through the old town playing the Basler drum and which other instrument?

The carnival was added to UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list in 2017.

What is the best-known call of the Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht, shouted by masked figures at bystanders?

The masked fools are called Narren, and their carved wooden masks are known as Larven.

In Alemannic dialect, Schmotziger Donnerstag literally means what kind of Thursday?

Schmotz means Schmalz, or lard, and the day was for frying up doughnuts before Lent.

In Denmark's Fastelavn barrel game, whoever knocks out the barrel's bottom earns which title?

Whoever knocks down the last piece of the barrel becomes king of cats; centuries ago a live cat was inside.

Aalborg Carnival, the largest in Scandinavia, is held in Denmark during the last week of which month?

Its three main events are the Grand Parade, the Battle of Carnival Bands and the Children's Carnival.

The Busójárás, a UNESCO-listed carnival of masked busós in Mohács, takes place in which country?

Legend says the townspeople, hiding in the swamps during Ottoman rule, scared the Turks away in their monstrous masks.

The Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife takes place in which Spanish archipelago?

Candidates for Queen of the Carnival parade in costumes that can weigh up to 100 kilograms.

Which singer's 1987 Tenerife carnival concert, attended by 250,000, entered the Guinness Book of Records?

She was backed by Billo's Caracas Boys, and the record was for the largest outdoor plaza concert crowd.

Which figure, usually a local resident, presides over Goa's four-day carnival?

The carnival is a Portuguese colonial legacy and has been celebrated in Goa since the 18th century.

Which avenue of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair named the sideshow-and-rides area at US fairs?

It held games of chance, freak shows, Wild West shows and the original Ferris Wheel, and it spawned the traveling carnival industry.

How many traveling carnivals were touring the United States in 1902?

By 1937 there were an estimated 300 on the road.

Each of the 36 cars on the original 1893 Ferris Wheel could carry up to how many people?

The 264-foot wheel was Chicago's answer to the Eiffel Tower and was demolished in 1906 after a second life in St. Louis.

Pancakes became the Shrove Tuesday dish as a practical way of using up what before Lent?

The name comes from 'shrive', to give absolution for sins, so the day was for confession as well as frying.

The Olney pancake race is said to date from a housewife running to church, pan in hand, in which year?

Since 1950 Olney has raced against the town of Liberal, Kansas, comparing times across the Atlantic.

On Fettisdagen, Sweden's Fat Tuesday, people eat which almond-paste-filled sweet roll?

The buns are so popular that bakeries now sell them from January onwards.

Which three days make up the Shrovetide season that closes with Carnival?

Shrove Sunday is also called Quinquagesima.

What do many churches burn on Shrove Tuesday to make the next day's ashes?

Baskets in the narthex collect the blessed palms during Shrovetide.

Which Roman festival of Isis, with its carrus navalis boat parade, is one proposed origin of the word carnival?

The image of Isis was carried to the shore to bless the start of the sailing season.

Which Germanic fertility goddess may have been paraded on a wheeled ship in early spring rites?

Tacitus described the car and vestments being purified in a secret lake.

Which 13th-century French poem stages an allegorical fight between Carnival and Lent?

Historian John Bossy argues Carnival practices are medieval and Christian, with no evidence much before 1200.

Which Shakespeare play mentions Christians painting their faces for the Carnival season?

The 1601 play is set in the city famous for its masked Carnival.

Which 742 church council condemned pagan February excesses in the Indiculus superstitionum?

Leptines lies near Binche in Belgium, itself famous for Carnival.

Which pope stopped the forced naked races of Jews at Rome's Carnival and replaced them with a tax?

Pope Paul II had sponsored the races in 1466; a 1836 petition to end further abuse was denied.

Which ruler abolished the Carnival of Venice in 1797?

Emperor Francis II's rule then kept masks banned; the modern revival came in 1979.

Which historian of religion described new-year festivals as repeating "the passage of chaos to the cosmogony"?

Eliade saw a deep human need to regenerate by abolishing elapsed time.

Which Cape Verdean island's Carnival was captured in the award-winning documentary Tchindas?

Three groups build painted floats using fire, newspaper moulds and steel frames.

Namibia's Carnival tradition was introduced by settlers from which country?

It follows the Rhineland style.

Which Argentine city in Entre Ríos Province hosts the country's most important Carnival?

Argentine children traditionally play with water and water balloons during Carnival.

How does Aruba's month-long Carnival end on the evening before Lent?

Aruba's season features torchlight parades and "jump-ups".

Barbados's sugar-harvest festival, later revived as a Carnival, began in which year?

It marked the end of the sugar-cane harvest and featured shak-shak, banjo, triangle and fiddle.

Bolivia's Oruro Carnival parade runs how many hours a day for three days?

More than 50 groups dance a five-kilometre course as devils, angels, Incas and conquistadors.

Brazil's first Carnival-style festivities, the préstitos of 1641, marked the coronation of which king?

Rio's Carnival proper is dated to 1723.

Which two Colombian cities host the Blacks and Whites' Carnival in the south of the country?

Barranquilla's Carnival was recognised by UNESCO in 2003.

What are the devil-costumed characters of the Dominican Republic's Carnival called?

La Vega and Santo Domingo host the biggest celebrations, danced to merengue.

Ecuador's Ambato Carnival is known as the festival of what?

Ecuadorian diablitos famously douse passers-by with water.

Haiti's Port-au-Prince Carnival began in which year, after independence?

Kanaval is followed by the rara parading festival on Ash Wednesday.

Which Honduran city holds Central America's largest Carnival, in May for San Isidro?

It falls on the third or fourth Saturday of May.

Which two Mexican cities host the country's largest Carnivals?

Huejotzingo stages mock combat with rifles firing blanks, based on the Battle of Puebla.

What are Panama's Carnival water-truck soakings called?

Repurposed fuel trucks spray crowds from 10 am to 3 pm; children and pregnant women are barred.

Which small Panamanian town is the country's most famous Carnival destination?

Carnival Week is a national holiday in Panama.

Which town is considered the capital of Carnival in Peru?

Residents dance around the unsha, a tree hung with ribbons, toys and bottles of liquor.

Uruguay's Carnival, lasting over 40 days, features which candombe-summoning parade?

Murgas perform a kind of popular opera on tablado stages around Montevideo.

Which Croatian city's mayor hands the keys of the city to the Carnival master?

Kvarner towns burn a doll called a Pust blamed for the year's strife; the Zvončari ring bells to chase winter.

Cyprus's Carnival is celebrated almost exclusively in which city?

The tradition likely dates to Venetian rule in the 16th century.

What is the fastelavnsris used for in Denmark's Fastelavn?

Fastelavn is sometimes called a Nordic Halloween.

Which French port's Carnival grew from fishermen's farewells before sailing to Icelandic waters?

The vischerbende went from café to café with family and friends.

What is the Greek Carnival season called?

It means "goodbye to meat" and includes meat week and cheese week.

What is Tsiknopémpti, a highlight of the Greek Carnival's Kreatiní week?

After the following Sunday, meat is forbidden until Easter.

Which Greek city holds the country's largest Carnival, with the famous Bourboúlia ball?

Women wear robe-like dómino costumes to hide their identity at the ball.

Which Greek town holds a phallus festival at Carnival, rewarding women with tsipouro?

Giant papier-mâché phalluses are paraded through the Thessaly town.

In the Ambrosian rite regions around Milan, when does Carnival end?

Elsewhere in Italy Carnival ends on Fat Tuesday.

Ivrea's Battle of the Oranges commemorates an uprising sparked by which figure?

She allegedly killed the tyrant who tried to kidnap her; a bean soup, fagiolata, is served.

Which Grand Master introduced Carnival to Malta in 1535?

Maltese Carnival features grotesque mask contests and King Carnival's float parade.

Which two southern Dutch provinces are the heartland of carnaval?

Traditions include Prince Carnival, a Council of 11 and eating herring on Ash Wednesday.

Where in the Netherlands is carnaval first documented, in 1383?

The oldest known images of Dutch carnival, from 1485, are also from the same city.

Which Portuguese Carnival is described as "the most Portuguese in Portugal"?

Its parade of decorated streetcars satirises society and politics.

Which Portuguese Carnival ends with the enterro do bacalhau, the burial of the cod?

Podence's Carnival features careto masks; Madeira's samba parades fill Funchal.

Which food symbolising the sun is essential to Russia's Maslenitsa?

The pancakes use the butter, eggs and milk still allowed in the week before Great Lent.

Which fluffy, demon-like figure is the star of Slovenia's Kurentovanje in Ptuj?

Kurents are magical creatures said to banish winter.

Roughly how many people take to Rio's streets each day of Carnival?

More than 200 samba schools are divided into five leagues.

What is the name of the choreographed group that opens each samba school's parade?

Ten to fifteen people tell a short story; the first float, the abre-alas, follows.

Which pair leads the dancers behind a samba school's opening float?

They are the master of ceremonies and flag bearer, with up to three reserve pairs.

In what year was Rio's samba parade moved to the Marquês de Sapucaí Avenue?

Oscar Niemeyer's Sambadrome was later built along it.

On which nights does Rio's Special Group of samba schools parade?

The A Series parades Friday and Saturday, and the B Series on Fat Tuesday.

Which Russian Grand Duke's 1872 visit prompted New Orleans businessmen to found Rex?

Rex has held more parades in New Orleans than any other organisation.

What is Rex's official song, adopted because the Grand Duke admired the actress who sang it?

Lydia Thompson sang it in the 1870s musical Bluebeard, then playing in New Orleans.

Who was the first Rex, King of Carnival, in 1872?

Solomon was a Jewish businessman elected from the rolls of the Boston Club.

Which krewe first specified purple, green and gold as the New Orleans Carnival colours?

Proclamations before its 1872 parade urged balconies be draped in the three colours.

Which two super krewes are named alongside Zulu as staging huge celebrity-studded parades?

Two spectators died in 2020 after being struck by tandem floats at Nyx and Endymion.

Besides beads, which coin-like items are classic New Orleans parade throws?

Decorated plastic throw cups and small toys are also common.

What is the fève traditionally hidden in a king cake named after?

Medieval hosts swapped the edible bean for porcelain to stop cheats swallowing it.

Where in North America is the earliest king cake reference and recipe, from 1649, set?

A settler had to deliver a cake annually to the lord of Port Royal, now Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.

Under which emperor's rule was Venetian Carnival outlawed and masks banned in 1797?

Roughly three million visitors now attend the revived festival each year.

Which Venetian mask covers the whole face with a prominent nose, jutting chin and no mouth?

It was usually paired with a red or black cape and a tricorn hat.

Which Trinidadian journalist organised the 1959 indoor "Caribbean Carnival" that seeded Notting Hill?

It responded to the 1958 Notting Hill race riots, in which 108 people were charged.

Which director from 1973–75 is credited with adding sound systems and island costume bands to Notting Hill?

By 1970 the carnival had two bands and 500 dancing spectators.

Which steelpan competition opens Notting Hill Carnival on the Saturday?

Sunday is family day and the main adult parade is on Monday.

Which three big bands are named among Trinidad Carnival's largest?

Soca has been replacing calypso as Carnival's dominant music.

Which Spanish decree brought French West Indian settlers to Trinidad in the 1780s, seeding Carnival?

Planters, free coloureds and enslaved Africans all arrived under it.

Which prime minister declared the steelpan Trinidad and Tobago's national instrument in 1992?

The UN declared 11 August World Steelpan Day in 2023.

Which earlier Carnival percussion tradition did the steelpan evolve from?

Modern pans are made from 200-litre industrial drums and played with rubber-tipped sticks.

Which West African tradition is calypso's rhythm traced back to?

Early calypso was sung in French creole and led by a griot, later called a chantuelle.

Who created soca music in the 1970s to revive calypso?

He originally spelt it "sokah" to reflect Indian influence; a journalist's misspelling stuck.

Which satirical singing groups are the heart of the Carnival of Cádiz?

Painting the face is the traditional humble substitute for a mask in Cádiz.

Which event opens the Barranquilla Carnival on the Saturday before Ash Wednesday?

UNESCO declared the carnival a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage in 2003.

Roughly how many spectators does the Carnival of Viareggio draw each year?

Its papier-mâché floats reach 14 metres and parade along the seafront Passeggiata.

Which 1893 event was the catalyst for the modern American traveling carnival?

Its Midway Plaisance mixed rides, games of chance, freak shows and burlesque.

Which Canadian Pacific liner became Carnival Cruise Line's first ship in 1972?

Founder Ted Arison bought his partner out for $1 plus the company's debts in 1974.

Who founded Carnival Cruise Line in 1972?

Its whale-tail funnel is a registered trademark; the fleet stood at 29 ships in 2025.

Which vessel introduced the cruise line's 1996 class that ran until the Splendor of 2008?

The platform lasted until the Carnival Splendor of 2008.

How tall was the original 1893 Ferris Wheel in Chicago?

It was meant to rival Paris's 1,063-foot Eiffel Tower.

Which 250-metre wheel, opened in October 2021, is the world's tallest?

It stands in the United Arab Emirates.

The word carousel comes from a French word meaning what?

17th-century tournaments had riders practise ring jousting on real horses.

Which dentist co-invented machine-spun cotton candy in 1897?

Sold as Fairy Floss at the 1904 World's Fair, it moved 68,655 boxes at 25 cents each.

Which company's 1949 sprung base finally made cotton candy machines reliable?

Gold Medal also created the two dominant US flavours, Boo Blue and Silly Nilly.

Which immigrant community brought the yeast ancestor of the funnel cake to America?

Around 1879 they created the baking-powder version and the name funnel cake.

Which three rival amusement parks made up Coney Island's heyday?

Steeplechase opened in 1897 and Luna Park in 1903 on the old Sea Lion Park site.

Which Coney Island ride of 1884 inspired LaMarcus Thompson's 1885 roller-coaster patent?

Coasters trace back to 17th-century "Russian Mountains".

Which Barbados harvest festival culminates in the Grand Kadooment each August?

Revived as a national festival in 1974, it had died out amid World War II's hardships.

In which three countries is Junkanoo most notably practised?

Its origins point strongly to Jamaica; Florida hosts parades in Miami and Key West.

Which fabricated preserved specimen was a classic sideshow exhibit?

Sideshows also featured human blockhead and sword-swallowing acts.

Which Texas immigrant sausage-makers are credited with introducing the corn dog?

A 1926 catalogue advertised a "Krusty Korn Dog" baker.

Which Texas company manufactures the Tilt-A-Whirl?

Its seven cars spin chaotically; British fairs have the similar Waltzer.

What is sprinkled on the floor of a bumper-car arena to reduce friction?

The first bumper-car patent was filed in 1921.

Since which year has the Quebec Winter Carnival been held annually after decades of interruptions?

Mayor Wilfrid Hamel promoted it for tourism after the first big edition in 1894.

Skee-Ball, the classic carnival-midway redemption game, was patented in 1908 by a resident of which state?

Joseph Fourestier Simpson of Vineland designed the inclined lane with its 'ball-hop' hump that flips balls into scoring rings.

Whac-A-Mole was created in 1975 by the amusements manufacturer TOGO in which country?

It was originally known as Mogura Taiji ('Mole Buster'); machines have five to eight holes with pop-up plastic moles.

The Gravitron, a staple spinning ride at fairs, is a modification of which earlier ride?

Wisdom Industries debuted it at Morey's Piers in 1983; riders lean on 48 sliding padded panels instead of a dropping floor.

In Canada, the carnival corn dog is commonly called what, after a popular Conagra brand?

The Australian names Pluto pup and Dagwood dog are used at agricultural shows and carnivals there.

Toffee apples, the fall-festival treat, were originally sold in the 1890s in which city?

They are popular at Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night because the festivals follow the apple harvest; caramel apples use a different process.

What material does Jacques Tilly use for his satirical Düsseldorf Rosenmontag floats?

Germany's premier float designer has built them since 1983; they carry overt political messaging and caricatures.

Together with Cologne and Düsseldorf, which city completes the trio of Rhenish carnival strongholds?

The Mainzer Fastnacht begins on 11 November and culminates in the days before Ash Wednesday.