CARNIVAL REVELS

The Carnival season in Italy doesnt just mean Venice and Viareggio. Carnival revels are in full swing in every town, big and small, in the Italian peninsula. Many of the celebrations incorporate unique ancient rituals and costumed processions involving most of the population.

While Venice is famous for the elaborate costumes parading in St. Marks Square and along the canals, Viareggio craftsmen work all year round to create the massive papier mache figures mounted on decorated floats that traditionally poke disrespectful fun at leading politicians, sports heroes, actors etc.  

The lesser-known, but equally spectacular Carnival of Cento, in Emilia Romagna, is twinned with the Carnival of Rio de Janiero. Six rival Carnival associations prepare the allegorical floats, which always feature the image of an exclusive historic character called Tasi, who is noted for his pet fox and for preferring a glass of the local Lambrusco wine to the company of his wife. Tasi gets his just desserts on Shrove Tuesday, when he is ceremoniously burnt on a giant bonfire. The same fate awaits the image of Peppe Nappa at Sciacca Carnival in Sicily, after he has generously distributed sausages and wine to all present, while at Montemarano, near Avellino, the Carnival dummy, declared dead because it has eaten too many sausages, is treated to a proper funeral.

A particularly thrilling and picturesque show is the Sa Sartiglia, staged every year in Oristano, Sardinia, where masked horsemen on richly caparisoned horses compete at full gallop in the highly skilled Race of the Stars.

But perhaps the most unusual tradition linked to the Carnival period takes place at Sauris, near Udine in Fruili Venezia Giulia. This little mountain village, where the inhabitants speak an exclusive dialect of German origin, celebrates an ancient and rather scary ritual called Voshankh, where a procession of revellers in handcrafted wooden masks participate in the “Night of the Lanterns” - a lantern-lit procession through the dark woods, ending in a huge bonfire.  

Posted on 21 Feb 2009 by Editor
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