Celebrated throughout the region, Caribbean carnival is an elaborate spectacle, when your senses are assaulted by the best in Caribbean culture and camaraderie. It has its roots in the pre-Lenten carnevale of early Italian Roman Catholicism, a time when Catholics were meant to finish up the meat in their pantries in preparation for the fasting period of Lent. The Italians chose to go out in style with a wild costume festival ( carne vale "farewell to flesh"), and the practice soon spread to France, Spain and Portugal and then to the Americas as they were colonized by Catholic Europe. In the Caribbean itself, carnival has grown from a two-day festival into a season of hedonism and debauchery stretching from February to August. These days more than ever it's all about spectacle, and with each passing year costumes are more flamboyant, dance routines more daring and headdresses more precariously balanced as each island seeks to throw the ultimate Caribbean carnival, probably at its peak on islands such as Trinidad and Tobago and Guadeloupe.