carnival

Short definition from Wiktionary

Noun

1. 1
   Any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent.
2. 2
   A festive occasion marked by parades and sometimes special foods and other entertainment.
3. 3
   A traveling amusement park, called a funfair in British English.
4. 4
   A context in which transgression or inversion of the social order is given temporary license. Derived from the work of Mikhail Bakhtin.
5. 5
   A gaudily chaotic situation.
6. 6
   Alternative form of carnival; especially in the sense "any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent."

Verb

1. 1
   To participate in a carnival.
2. 2
   To move about playfully or wildly.

Proper noun

1. 1
   The season just before the beginning of the Western Christian season of Lent.