Rio/Origin

Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro (/ˈriːoʊ di ʒəˈnɛəroʊ/, /deɪ ʒəˈnɛəroʊ/, /deɪ dʒəˈnɛəroʊ/; Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈʁi.u dʒi ʒɐˈnejɾu], January River), commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th largest in the Americas, and 26th in the world. Part of the city has been designated as a World Heritage Site, named "Rio de Janeiro: Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea", identified by UNESCO on 1 July 2012 in the category Cultural Landscape.

Founded in 1565, by the Portuguese, the city was initially the seat of the Captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, a captaincy of the Portuguese Empire. It later, in 1793, became the capital of the State of Brazil, a State of the Portuguese Empire. In 1808, when the Portuguese Royal Court transferred itself from Portugal to Brazil, Rio de Janeiro became the chosen seat of the court of Queen Maria I of Portugal, who subsequently, in 1815, under the leadership of her son, the Prince Regent, and future King João VI of Portugal, raised Brazil to the dignity of a kingdom, within the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and Algarves. Rio stayed the capital of the pluricontinental Lusitanian monarchy until 1822, when the War of Brazilian Independence began. It subsequently served as the capital of the independent monarchy, the Empire of Brazil, until 1889, and then the capital of a republican Brazil until 1960.

Rio Carnival
The Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro is a world famous festival held before Lent every year and considered the biggest carnival in the world with two million people per day on the streets. The first festivals of Rio date back to 1823. GRES Imperatriz Leopoldinense at the carnival, in 1999 Mangueira samba school parades in the Sambadrome in the 1998 Carnival. A Samba school parades in the Sambadrome in the 2004 Carnival.

The typical Rio carnival parade is filled with revelers, floats and adornments from numerous samba school which are located in Rio (more than 200 approximately, divided into 5 leagues/ divisions.) A samba school is composed of a collaboration of local neighbours that want to attend carnival together, with some kind of regional, geographical common background. The Top League, called the "Special Group" of Samba schools in 2014 include: GRES Unidos da Tijuca, Mocidade Independente, GRES Imperatriz Leopoldinense, GRES Uniao da Ilha do Governador, GRES Acadêmicos do Salgueiro, Portela, whose origin remounts to the single first samba group in Rio, GRES São Clemente, the traditional GRES Estação Primeira de Mangueira, founded by Cartola, samba composer and singer and Fluminense Football Club famous fan, GRES Acadêmicos do Grande Rio, located at Duque de Caxias city, GRES Unidos de Vila Isabel, Beija-Flor de Nilópolis, and finally GRES Império da Tijuca, which won the Access Division in 2013 Rio Carnival contest.