Iron Maiden mascot Eddie attended Carnival last week, the world-famous festival held in Rio De Janeiro before Lent every year and considered the biggest carnival in the world with two million people per day on the streets.

Although Carnival (Carnaval in Portuguese) is celebrated in towns and villages throughout Brazil and other Catholic countries, Rio de Janeiro has long been regarded as the Carnival Capital of the World. The Rio Carnaval is not only the biggest Carnival, it has also a benchmark against which every other carnival is compared and one of the most interesting artistic events on the Globe.

Rio Carnival is a wild four-day celebration, 40 days before Easter. It officially starts on Saturday and finishes on Fat Tuesday with the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday after which one is supposed to abstain from all bodily pleasures. Carnival with all its excesses, celebrated as a profane event, can be considered an act of farewell to the pleasures of the flesh. It usually happens in February, the hottest month in the Southern Hemisphere, when the Rio summer is at its peak.

Iron Maiden return to live action in 2013 with their Maiden England European tour; shows begin May 29 in Lisbon, Portugal.

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