Lent excess before Lent begins. Some of the most famous are the Carnival of Barranquilla, the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the Carnival of Venice, Cologne Carnival, the New Orleans Mardi Gras, the Rio de Janeiro carnival, and the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival. The day immediately preceding Lent is variously called Mardi Gras ("Fat Tuesday"), Pancake Tuesday, or Shrove Tuesday. Sometimes, it is the peak of the pre-Lenten festival, while sometimes it is largely occupied with preparations for Lent. The observances vary from culture to culture, and even from town to town. Originally, in Lebanon and Syria, the last Thursday
Greater Rio de Janeiro the Guanabara Bay municipalities and major inter-city freeways such as the Rio–Niterói Bridge, Red Line, President Dutra freeway and Niterói-Manilha freeway. Most transportation methods are integrated with the capital inner-transportation system of buses, trains, metro, freeways and expressways. + 1,000,000 400,000 – 999,999 100,000 – 399,999 -100,000 The 21 municipalities of the area are: Greater Rio de Janeiro Greater Rio de Janeiro, officially Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region ("Grande Rio", officially "Região Metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro", in Portuguese) is a large metropolitan area located in Rio de Janeiro state in Brazil, the second largest in Brazil and third largest