While carnival celebrations take place around Brazil, Rio de Janeiro is getting ready to start their main event. 

The annual event at the Sambadrome, where rival samba schools parade through and compete, is about to start. 

Carnival starts the Friday before Ash Wednesday and ends on Ash Wednesday, when Lent starts.

The event's history is a blend of European Pagan traditions, Catholicism, the country's Portuguese colonization and indigenous roots.