The Carnival of the Animals and xylophone. From the beginning, Saint-Saëns regarded the work as a piece of fun. On 9 February 1886 he wrote to his publishers Durand in Paris that he was composing a work for the coming Shrove Tuesday, and confessing that he knew he should be working on his Third Symphony, but that this work was "such fun" (). He had apparently intended to write the work for his students at the École Niedermeyer, but it was first performed at a private concert given by the cellist Charles Lebouc on Shrove Tuesday, 9 March 1886. A second (private) performance was given
Carnival in Mexico Carnival in Mexico Carnival in Mexico is celebrated by about 225 communities in various ways, with the largest and best known modern celebrations occurring in Mazatlan and the city of Veracruz. Larger celebrations are also found in the Baja California and Yucatán Peninsulas, similar to other Carnivals with floats, queens and costumes but are not as large as those in Rio de Janeiro and New Orleans. Smaller and more rural communities have Carnival traditions which have conserved more of Mexico’s indigenous and religious heritage and vary depending on the local indigenous cultures that Carnival was assimilated into. The largest of