Hello American Lutherans, i'm here to share you part of the culture of Italy. This time i'll present you the holiday of Carnival. I'm pretty sure you've heard of this word once. The word originally meant "carne levare" (remove meat) and i can tell you that for the past weeks i spent my days fasting and doing other pious things in the name of Christ. All to prepare myself to attend the celebrations that will be held before Easter. Now, let's talk about the holiday itself.
If we can describe Carnival in some words, some would call it a "Winter Halloween with no dark stuff". And effectively, during the week of Carnival you'll see alot of people dressed like real and fict
ional characters. However, it will depend on the town you're visiting, since some cities have traditional dresses with masks, like the ones of Venice.
And one of the famous masks is named Arlecchino (Harlequin in English). He is a prankster and he is the symbol of the week:
But peoples are not the only ones who parades for Carnival. In some of the Carnival traditions, peoples makes tanks and parades them around the streets (like the ones you would see in some Holiday, such as the pagan Thanksgiving). Here is a beautiful example of a Carnival tank:
And of course, its not an holiday withouth food. In fact, we have a lot of eating during this week. The most common "candies" that every tradition of Carnival in Italy has are the Chiacchere (Blabbling in English):
And with that i've showed you all that you need to know about our Carnival. Of course i'm pretty sure that you have your own version as well. I'm very sorry that your Church doesn't allow you celebrate it.
Grazie per l'attenzione e arrivederci.