HISTORY OF CARNEVALE
Carnevale, Italy's mardi gras or Carnevale celebration, starts on February 5 in 2008 but Carnevale festivities often last two or three weeks and are already underway some places. Although Venice holds the most famous Carnevale celebration, Carnevale is celebrated throughout Italy.
Italy has many carnevale celebrations, but Venice, Viareggio, and Cento hold the biggest and most elaborate Carnevale festivals. Other towns have unusual ways of celebrating. Here's where to celebrate Carnevale in Italy.
Venice Carnevale
Venice's Carnevale season starts about 2 weeks before the date of Carnevale. Events and entertainment are held nightly throughout Venice. During Carnevale season people in costumes wander about the city. Find out more about Carnevale in Venice, including how to find the schedule of events, in Tips for Going to Venice Carnevale.
Some public highlights are:
Gondola and boat parades along the Grand Canal
Mask parades in St. Mark's Square
Carnevale for Children in the Cannaregio district.
Grand fireworks show on the final day to end the Carnevale celebration.
Viareggio, on the Tuscany coast, has one of the biggest Carnevale celebrations in Italy. Vaireggio Carival is known for its giant, allegorical paper maché floats used in parades not only on Shrove Tuesday but also the three Sundays before and the Sunday following.
The town of Ivrea, in the Piedmont region, has a unique Carnevale celebration with medieval roots. The Carnevale includes a colorful parade followed by orange-throwing battles in the center of town. The carts are presented with a parade through town about a month prior to Carnevale. Then orange battles take place on Sunday through the Tuesday of Carnevale. The culminating event is the burning of the scarli (big poles, erected in the middle of each district's square, covered with dry bushes) on the evening of February 5 to end the Carnevale season. Other events are scheduled during this time as well.
Equestrian Carnevale and jousting tournament in Sardinia
The town of Oristano (see Sardinia map) celebrates Carnevale with a costumed parade, horse races, and a re-enactment of a medieval jousting tournament in a festival called La Sartigilia.
Sardinia Carnevale in the Barbagia Mountain Villages
The island of Sardinia is steeped in tradition and that's especially true in the Barbagia villages outside Nuoro. Tradition is strongly reflected in their unique carenvale festivals, influenced by ancient cult and rites.
Carnevale in Acireale, Sicily
Acireale holds one of Sicily's most beautiful carnevale celebrations. Flower and paper-mache' allegorical floats, first made in Acireale in 1601, parade through the town's Baroque center. There are several parades during carnevale period and the floats are on display, too. There's also music, a chess tournament, children's events, and a fireworks finale.
Pont St. Martin - Roman Carnevale
Pont St. Martin in the Val d'Aosta region of northwestern Italy, celebrates Carnevale Roman style with nymphs and people dressed in togas. sometimes there's even a chariot race. On Shrove Tuesday Evening, festivities culminate by hanging and burning an effigy of the devil on the 2000 year-old bridge.
Brazilian Carnaval in Italy
Cento, in the Emilia Romagna region, is linked to the most famous Carnivale celebration in the world, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Floats are very high quality and often include items from Brazil. The winning float in the Cento parade is actually taken to Brazil for their carnivale. Participants arrive from all over Italy to march in the parade or ride along on their motorcycles. 30,000 pounds of candy are thrown to spectators during the parade. Cento is about two hours from Milan, between Bologna, Ferrara, and Modena.
Not far from Venice, Verona has one of the oldest carnevale celebrations in Italy, dating from 1615. On the day of Carnevale (Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday) Verona has a huge parade with more than 500 floats. 15,000 kg of sweets are thrown out into the crowd!
Snow Carnevale in the Alps
The Alpine resort town of Livigno, near the Swiss border, celebrates Carnevale with a procession of downhill skiers, followed by an obstacle race, fancy dress ball, and traditional parade in the streets.
Albanian Carnevale in Calabria
The southern Italian region of Calabria has Albanian settlements. Lungro holds a Carnevale parade with people in traditional Albanian costumes. The Carnevale of Pollino in Castrovillari includes women dressed in intricate local costume and celebrates the Pollino wine of the region, Lacrima di Castrovillari. In northern Calabria, Montalto Uffugo holds an interesting wedding parade of men wearing women's dresses. They hand out sweets and tastes of Pollino wine. Following the parade, the kings and queens arrive for a night of dancing wearing costumes that include giant heads.
Celebrated all over Europe and the Americas, most folks think of Carnevale as the period immediately preceding the austere Christian season of Lent.
Carnivale's roots lie in ancient festivals celebrated by the Romans and even the ancient Egyptians. The word Carnivale (which comes from carnem levare, Latin for to remove meat) became associated with the Lenten season during the Middle Ages, when, after many unsuccessful attempts to eradicate the festival completely, the Church finally assimilated Carnivale into the Christian calendar as the last festival before Lent, which is traditionally honored by abstaining from eating meat.
Typically beginning in midwinter, on the Epiphany (January 6) or Candlemas (February 2), Carnevale festivities include masquerades, parties, dancing, theatrics, acrobatics and assorted revelry. The excitement winds up to a dizzying pitch on Shrove Tuesday, the day before the Lenten season begins, which is celebrated with the Bacchanalian festival of Mardi Gras (French for Fat Tuesday). Some communities, in fact, call the entire festival season; Mardi Gras rather than Carnivale.
Once Upon a Time . . .
In Venice, Carnevale first gained widespread popularity in the 18th century. Back then, it began the day after Christmas and lasted for six weeks! During that time, Venetian law was considered, well, optional. Citizens wore gaily colored costumes and put on comedic performances in the theaters and on street corners, poking fun at social and religious rituals and conventions.
The Venetian tradition of wearing masks and costumes is said to have been started by the stocking companies – clubs of young Venetian noblemen intent on amusing their fellow Venetians by organizing parties and spectacles. The gentlemen were famous for the colorful stockings they wore.
Everybody was required to don a costume and those who did not were playfully punished. Because everyone was disguised, divisions between social classes blurred and Venetian nobility seized this opportunity to carry on illicit love affairs, mingle with the lower classes and roam the casinos and theaters unrecognized.
The festival started with a series of balls and was followed by smaller parties that went on until midnight on Shrove Tuesday, when the bells of San Francesco dell Vigna tolled to announce the beginning of Lent.
The Venetian government encouraged street entertainment and organized games, believing these encouraged patriotism and a fighting spirit, although some of these sports and shows were downright bizarre.
Eighteenth Century Carnevale Games
For the Feast of Mardi Gras – the final event of Carnevale – acrobats outside the Doge's Palace would build human pyramids and perform the flight of the angel an acrobat would slide down a rope from the top of St. Mark's campanile to the Doge's Palace to deliver a bouquet of flowers to the Doge – the city’s chief official.
Cruel games involving live animals were played on Candlemas during the 18th century. One involved dangling a live goose from a balcony by a rope. Contestants would leap from a bridge and try to grab the goose; the proud winner would carry it through the streets.
Wheelbarrow races among Venice's street-sweepers were also especially popular, as was bull-baiting.
What is carnival?
It is an annual celebration of life found in many countries of the world. And in fact, by learning more about carnevale we can learn more about ourselves and a lot about accepting and understanding other cultures.
Where did the word “carnival” come from?
Hundred and hundreds of years ago, the followers of the Catholic religion in Italy started the tradition of holding a wild costume festival right before the first day of Lent. Because Catholics are not supposed to eat meat during Lent, they called their festival, carnevale — which means “to put away the meat.” As time passed, carnivals in Italy became quite famous; and in fact the practice spread to France, Spain, and all the Catholic countries in Europe. Then as the French, Spanish, and Portuguese began to take control of the Americas and other parts of the world, they brought with them their tradition of celebrating carnival.
The dynamic economic and political history of the Caribbean are indeed the ingredients of festival arts as we find them today throughout the African and Caribbean Diaspora. Once Columbus had steered his boat through Caribbean waters, it was only a few hundred years before the slave trade was well established. By the early 19th century, some six million slaves had been brought to the Caribbean. Between 1836 and 1917, indentured workers from Europe, west and central Africa, southern China, and India were brought to the Caribbean as laborers.
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