| Carnival |
 The
Venetian Carnival is one of the oldest and most enchanting festivals in
Europe.Nobody knows when the Venetians actually started wearing masks, even though in Venice Carnival officially began on Boxing Day, December 26, and reached its climax on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. But in the 18th century dressing up and anonymous games with masks were an inseparable part of the Venetian daily life and society. So in the old Republic Carnival seemed to go on almost all year long, or so it must have appeared to the visitors to the city. The Venetian fashion of wearing masks brought with it many advantages and freedoms, which must have seemed close to paradise for many foreign visitors.  Ordinary
citizens dressed in costume made of expensive fabric could feel like wealthy
noblemen. Rich and poor celebrated together throughout the city and the
astute Senate, which recognized this as an escape valve for social unrest,
pronounced that no one wearing a mask was superior to any another.Even gamblers wore masks to remain anonymous and also women, protected by masks, could make secret trysts and yet be seen in public. So the "mask" became an outlet for many to depart from the mainstream life they were leading. The mask invents the new personality to outward view and lets you behave in a different way.  During
the Carnival St. Mark Square became the centre of celebration, but also
the another "campi" (little square) and the main thoroughfares
were thronged with people dancing, singing and playing games. St. Mark
Square, described as the world's greatest dining room, was like a huge
open-air ballroom and near the entrance of the square floating stage appears
though the lagoon mist. The final day "Martedì Grasso" or Shrove Tuesday, was the climatic day of the Carnival, when processions wander up and down the Grand Canal. Hundreds of fairy lights and lanterns are reflected in the waters of the canals and Venice itself became a unique great stage.  With the fall of the Venetian Republic at the
end of the 18th century, the use and tradition of masks gradually began
to decline, until they disappeared altogether.In 1979, a group of young Venetians interested in theatre and culture had the idea of reviving the Carnival in Venice. Now the visitors that crowd Venice in the last week before the beginning of the Lent reach the figure of more than 500.000 and the traditional spirit of the Carnival pervades again the city.Identities again become confused. The division between reality and illusion, between past and present, never very clearly defined in Venice at any time, indistinguishably merge. |
