Carnival Monday

Carnival Monday is part of Argentina’s two-day pre-Lenten break. Its place in the calendar reflects a long Catholic and popular tradition, but the celebration itself is strikingly regional: the corsos of Buenos Aires, the comparsas of Entre Ríos and the Andean festivals of the north each have their own history.

In the northwest, Carnival can bring music, dance, colour and the ceremonial unearthing of the pujllay in communities where Indigenous and colonial histories meet. Elsewhere, neighbourhood groups, drums, costumes and public parades make the date a collective celebration rather than a single national script.

Law 27,399 makes both Carnival Monday and Tuesday immovable national holidays. Their dates move with Western Easter, so the official annual calendar is the simplest guide for travel and workplace planning.

Carnival disappeared from the national holiday calendar during the military dictatorship and was restored as a public holiday in 2010, a history that gives the contemporary break civic as well as festive meaning. Gualeguaychú’s large-scale comparsas, Corrientes Carnival, Buenos Aires murga groups and Jujuy’s Andean ceremonies represent different traditions and should never be described as one uniform national event.