Carnival in Italy

Carnival is a popular festivity in Italy, celebrated in February. It’s so important that we have a lot of traditions and sayings about Carnival. We say: “A Carnevale ogni scherzo vale”, which means “At Carnival every joke is fair”!

The origin of Carnival is religious: in fact the main celebration is on the day before Lent. Lent is the period before Easter during which Christians aren’t allowed to eat meat. Other origins could be found in some cults of the Ancient Greeks and Romans in which people used to change their social status by wearing masks and costumes.

According to some historical testimonials, Carnival has been celebrated since the VIII century A.D. Nowadays the Carnival’s festivity is one week long and we get 3 or 4 days of vacation from school.

During Carnival people usually wear masks and dresses in order not to be recognized by anyone. We have a lot of traditional characters you can dress as, but people also like to make their own costumes. Carnival in Viareggio

Arlecchino, Pulcinella and Colombina are probably the most popular carnival characters. Colombina is a typical character of the Venetian comedy of art. She is a servant and helps her mistress to exchange letters with her lover. Arlecchino is a gentleman from Bergamo (northern Italy) dressed in a colorful suit. His origins are related to the Roman comedy: he is probably the evolution of the character of the servant.

Pulcinella, instead, is from Naples and is the personification of the city. He wears a white dress and a black mask and is also considered as a lucky charm in Naples.

During Carnival, children usually wear costumes at school and do fun activities related to it. In some parts of Italy it is tradition to have huge parades: people build themed wagons and cruiese around the city while everyone is singing and throwing confetti.

The city of Carnival par excellence is Venice. Every year, in the city, there is a festival dedicated to Carnival: people from all around the world travel to Venice and wear elegant dresses dating back to 1500-1700 A.D. Carnival in Venice lasts eleven days, during which there are always a lot of events.

One of the most important events is “Il Volo dell’Angelo” (The Flight of the Angel). The second Sunday of Carnival, the winner of a beauty contest called “Marie” flies from the San Marco’s bell tower to Palazzo Ducale, attached to a rope. The Angel usually wears a huge, colorful dress and a mask on her face. Volo dell’Angelo

Then we have “giuseppine” or “zeppole di San Giuseppe”, which are similar to doughnuts but have crème patissière inside. Other traditional sweets are frittelle with apples or raisins, castagnole and strufoli.

Even though Carnival was related to religion, nowadays it has lost this connection. For us Carnival is a moment to enjoy with our friends and maybe make some jokes!

Text Marianna Faggin and Emma Guasti

Chiacchiere

Another important part of Carnival is food. Carnival, in fact, was the last period before Lent during which people could eat whatever they wanted. So they created a lot of traditional sweets to eat during Carnival.

The most popular ones are “crostoli”. Crostoli, also called “chiacchiere” or “bugie”, are fried biscuits made with eggs, flour and sugar.