When is Carnival 2026?

Carnival is the festive season immediately preceding Lent, the forty-day period of fasting and penance before Easter. The word likely derives from the Latin carne vale — "farewell to meat" — reflecting the tradition of feasting before the Lenten abstinence from meat and rich foods. Carnival peaks on Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), the day before Ash Wednesday, which falls 47 days before Easter.

The festival has ancient roots in Roman springtime celebrations such as Lupercalia and Saturnalia, which were absorbed and reinterpreted as Christianity spread across the Roman Empire. By the medieval period, Carnival had become a season of licensed excess — masked balls, processions, street theatre, and social role reversals — before the solemnity of Lent.

The world's most famous Carnivals are held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Venice (Italy), New Orleans (USA, as Mardi Gras), Barranquilla (Colombia), and Notting Hill (UK, in August). Many countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, and parts of Europe treat Carnival Tuesday — and sometimes Monday — as a public holiday. In Germany the tradition is known as Karneval or Fasching.