RIO DE JANEIRO -- Revelers are packing streets and dancing to samba beats in this seaside city's Carnival celebration – a bacchanal of music, booze and flesh that officially opens Friday when
King Momo, the mythical figure ruling over the chaos, is handed the keys to the city, the
Huffington Post Reports.
The rotund King Momo embodies Carnival, a raucous free-for-all where excesses are encouraged and the natural order of things is turned upside down – men dress as women, the poor parade as kings, rules are bent and everyone escapes their drab daily existence for a few days of catharsis.
