It extends during the month of February in different cities and closes with a great National Parade that this year will take place on March 23 on George Washington Avenue in this capital, with the participation of more than 150 dance groups.
A riot of color, creativity and joy characterize this celebration, which this weekend brought together hundreds of people in Santo Domingo to witness more than 80 comparsas such as “Sangre Africana” from Guachupita, and “La Fiesta de los Dulces” from Villa María.
Similar parades took place in Santiago de los Caballeros and Santo Domingo Este, while the tourist city of Punta Cana, known for the beauty of its beaches and an environment where modernity predominates, stood out for the event held on its Boulevard.
This year, the party began in Punta Cana with the coronation of King Momo, a distinction that fell to the two-time Olympic champion and two-time world champion in athletics Félix Sánchez, considered one of the greatest local athletes of all time.
Sánchez rode in a vintage vehicle, accompanied by applause and cheers from the public, who recognize him as one of the greatest athletes of all time.
During this event, some 54 comparsas and more than 1,500 fans from Punta Cana, La Vega, Puerto Plata, Santiago, San Francisco de Macorís, Barahona, among other territories, in addition to visitors from the island of Curacao and Colombia, paraded. One of the most colorful was the Las Musas de Punta Cana comparsa, born on the initiative of a group of women from that town, who this year paid homage to the fruits that identify the nation, embedded in sequins in their colorful costumes.
In their clothing they made reference to pineapple, coconut, papaya, cocoa, tangerine, mango, banana, guava, pitahaya and coffee, in an overflow of color and imagination in the designs.
Some historians place the beginnings of the carnivals in 1520 during the period of Spanish colonization, which over the years took on a very special tone because they celebrate the independence of Haiti, on February 27, 1844, after 22 years of occupation by the now border nation.
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