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Le Vie della Perla

24 February 2023

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The tradition of the Carnival in Calabria.

In Calabria, as in the rest of Italy, the Carnival is considered the craziest party.

Carnival parade in Cosenza

 

It is the time where everything is allowed as it happened during the Greek Dionysian festivals and the Roman saturnals. The preparation for Lent was inserted with Christianity. In fact the word “Carnival” comes from the Latin “Carnem Levare” to remember the large banquet of meat that was held on the Shrove Tuesday (for this reason in Italy called litteraly “Fat Tuesday”) before the Ash Wednesday. 

As always, the sacred lives with the layman!

During this period, in Calabria there are several celebrations and festivals dedicated to the Carnival, with parades of allegorical floats and groups of people wearing costumes and masks along the streets of the towns and small villages.

 

Carnival parade in Amantea

 

Among the oldest in the Southern Italy, there is one which takes place in Alessandria del Carretto, a small village in Pollino National Park, which dates back to the ancient Magna Grecia. There are not any parades, but the dressing of the typical masks Polëcënellë Bielle and Polëcënellë Brutte who walk along the alleys of the hamlet.

 

Carnival in Alessandria del Carretto – Ph by Alfonso Morelli

 

Instead one of the most important is in Castrovillari, The Carnival of Tradition, among the 10 most beautiful in Italy, according the Italian Touring Club, and recognized by Ministero dei Beni Culturali(Ministry of Cultural Heritage) as Historical Carnival.

We asked Teresa Francesca Magarò to tell us about the Carnival in Castrovillari, because he had the opportunity to live it in person:

 

Carnival in Castrovillari – Ph by Teresa Francesca Magarò

 
– Semel in anno licet insanire – used to say the Latins, which means “Once a year is legal to go crazy”.  No definition is more suitable for Carnival: it is the most colored and happiest period of the year which allows us to take off our clothes in order to wear those ones which meet our desires or moods. Castrovillari, a Calabrian small town at the feet of Pollino in the province of Cosenza, has been considered for more than half a century an excellence for the Calabrian Carnival.
 
Several groups parade along the streets of the town, telling stories of colors and sounds. The Carnival of the 2023 is that one of rebirth after the pandemic period and follows the desire of freedom after two years of darkness. On Sunday and Tuesday, 9 groups paraded giving value to the show.
 
 

Carnival in Castrovillari – Ph by Teresa Francesca Magarò

 
The parade starts with the group with the theme “Salviamo il pianeta” (Let’s save the planet), a performance dedicated to ecology: adults and children wear bees and water drop costumes to remind us the importance of the respect of Nature. Then the group named “Connessi e imbambolati” (Connected and dazed, in Italian dazed is “imbambolati” from “bambola-doll” which means that your gaze look blank, without thoughts, like a doll): this group is full of dolls and mannequins to remind  the damages of the alienation of our time. The artistic brushstrokes of the group “Las Flores De Frida – Viva la vida” (Live life) follow , this time dedicated to the Mexican paintress and her braiding of colors. The parade continues with “Le Phenix” La Rinascita” (The Rebirth), “Dancehippie tutta un’altra vita” (Dancehippie, a whole other life), “Le aquile dell’Albania a Castrovillari” (The Albanian Eagles in Castrovillari), “I Pinguini del Madagascar” (The penguins from Madagascar), “Pinocchio”, “Salute…Disco Pub” (Health…Disco Pub). 
 
 

Carnival in Castrovillari – Ph by Teresa Francesca Magarò

 

In addition there are several groups of representatives from Ukraine, Uzbekistan and from Greece which give a cosmopolitan value to this festival, real symbol of inclusion. Among the braiding of music, the corianders and the sparklers which fall down like rain, you can enjoy a freeing walk, because the Carnival, reversing the reality, takes us to real life in a specular way but without the bad things of the past and giving back to us a purest present. 

And Carnival it is!

 

 

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