Carnival is one of the most popular celebrations in South America’s biggest country, Brazil. And nowhere is the six-day celebration bigger than in the city of Rio de Janeiro. People across the city fill the streets with singing and dancing in the days before the Catholic religious observance of Lent. The festival includes parades and contests between the city’s top samba schools, known as the Special Group. But the Rio Times newspaper reports that the mayor may reduce the amount of money given to the city’s top samba schools by one half for the 2018 festival. Rio mayor Marcelo Crivella says the money would be used for the city’s childcare centers. City officials say the samba schools of the Special Group received about $8 million for the Carnival parades in 2017. Now, officials want to reduce that amount to about $4 million for 2018. Crivella said that people living in the city must decide whether they would rather use their resources for, in his words, a three-day party or 365 days a year.