As COVID-19 continues to ravage through Brazil, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro officially canceled Carnival, looking ahead to 2022, when the event can be celebrated with “all the intensity we deserve.”

Less than a year ago, the streets of Rio de Janeiro were filled with people — friends and strangers alike — reveling maskless within a six-foot radius for Carnival, the city’s annual celebration of colorful costumes and extravagance. Little did they know at the time, but the late February event would be one of the last semblances of any crowd-inducing tradition held anywhere on the globe. And on Feb. 26, 2020, the last day of Carnival, Brazil confirmed its first case of COVID-19.

As the deadly impact of the worldwide pandemic stretched throughout 2020, officials announced in September that the annual February event would be pushed back to July 2021, delaying the celebration for the first time in a century. But last Thursday, Rio’s mayor made an even more historic announcement — Carnival would be canceled for 2021