Masks of the Carnival of Venice
Mask is "licensed" in and of itself. For this I have always linked the over world and I was always a little carnival 'scared. And here I mean 'fear' in the sense of transition, change in status. It 's a fierce context, that of the Carnival, something that we talk about survival of parades and of' processions' where people dress up lingering on the brink of another world. The 'jokes Carnival', which I always considered from a certain point of view 'cruel', speak to us to cause fear and terror, tell of death (ritual) and initiation and the same forms, in their grotesque laugh or cry, recall the exaggeration and refer the look 'beyond' the normal. There is something more than that but at a first glance would seem only to mask the burlante corteo.Penso Mamuthones of Mamoiada in Sardinia, as not to get caught by the thought that something 'much older than what you think' will survive in that particular tradition? The "end of winter" or "call the summer" (and with it wealth and fertility) can not be separated from the "terror", by agitation rattles and bells to scare the season hard and death, to call the beautiful season and the life. But there is no life without death ritual, passing - even - with fear.
All my thoughts and feelings have also found a response when I read years ago, the intervention of Franco Castelli "Masca vel Stria: a symbolic mountain, " reported in the Proceedings of the Fourth National Congress of Historical Studies held in anthropological Triora (Imperia), on 22-24 October 2004. A few excerpts for your consideration:
"In archaic Carnevali, masks are the dead who return. Carnival is the ever recurring symbol of renovatio mundi metaphor of the alternation of life and death in nature and humans. Carnival dies (most often burned, but also hanged, shot, dismembered, dissected) to be reborn. The practice of ritual dismemberment of the body Carnival (grotesque body, as open and gutted) definitely connects the ancient custom of anatomy theater (attested for example in modern times to Rome, Florence, Pisa, Padua and Bologna), which involves allowing the audience on the last day of Carnival, to witness the dissection of a human cadaver, in an anatomical theater. But the performances in Carnival time were not uncommon, so much so that in Rome, even in the relatively marked, was used Thursday to kill the fat a person sentenced to death (and Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake in Campo dei Fiori on Thursday Carnival of 1600). This link-Carnevali archaic rites of death is the basis of a series of processing symbolic and cultural practices on which it is perhaps not sufficiently investigated, but which belong to the realm of the sacred and magical with which traditional communities were seeking confrontation with the unknown and the supernatural. It is therefore not a coincidence that in several places within the Carnival archaic, if this demonstrates the presence, among the practices associated with the life cycle, the dirge (so Rueglio in Canavese, and Sapphire mountain Bagolino Brescia Mamoiada Ottana Barbagia in Sardinian, etc.) as a rite of reintegration and technique that secures the presence of risk does not exist in history. "
the same tone is also following the intervention of Paul in his door The Witch and the crucifix " Editions Castel Negrino:
" Nellla second half of February, at the critical output of winter, it was believed that the world was exposed to the onslaught of the living souls of the dead. It was said that pathetic mundus, the gate of hell, in other words, it was ajar, and went back with their darkest secrets of the dead. The Carnival would thus seem to fit within this tradition of rites of passage, most notably the masked figures and atavistic as the Salvan or inferred as Herlequin. An age in its rituals and symbols, but not in name, largely unknown in the folk world. For example, in France, the term Carnival was introduced in 1596, directly from Italian, and in villages north of the Alps, even in 70s of XX century, was used to indicate the masked winter with this exact name. Carnival is unknown in many dialects, while in many European countries, the festival was known by passing a particular term that sometimes remembered as personifying the date of the mask or the costume, so, for example, are known in European folklore the "jours de Pailhasses, Tchuddigs des, des Kurents, de la Capra, des Masques, the output of Mamuthones, etc ".
Harlequin and Columbine (Jean Antoine Watteau)
"(...) Let us return then to the fundamental relationship with the afterlife. The larvae are male-male, spirits of ancestors, ancestors who are underground, like seeds. It follows that fertility, abundance, wealth can not be achieved without the mediation of the spirits and the underworld chthonic. Camporesi then cites a testament of Sier Carnival [2], the popular press Gobbo di Rialto, which dates back to the earliest seventeenth century, in which Messer Carnival said its extreme will, taking a seven witnesses loyal secretaries that meet the funny names Crack el, el Zogo, el Bagordo, Mattezzo el, el parcel, the Imbriaghezzo, el Strighezzo. Now, Strighezzo, Stregazzo, striazzo, Strazza, as well as picenale, Barlow, of course are all synonyms of sand. "
And here in our reflection comes into play - a very right! - Procession of the Lord, where live and dead participate in the dance without any distinctions: the living to "initiate" the secrets of death and win the favor of the underworld and the dead to enjoy the contact with that world that are leaving the course ... (Parade), the Lady of the Games is this sort of 'contact point', and the parades of Carnival is modeled on some features.
Returning Castles in what he writes and another thought:
"Carnival, Agricultural festival par excellence, is a magical moment suspended in time. What we would like to emphasize here is that this archaic concept of carnival as Antimondo, topsy-turvy world, belongs to a rich symbolic repertoire that becomes part of the construction of the stereotype of the sabbath, as Ginzburg has shown, it crystallizes just in the Alps West. What is its origin? From below, from the folkloric heritage of the witches, or from above, from ecclesial culture that establishes the equation paganitas = demonic? Or the result of two within a conflictus between folk culture and learned culture that is manifested and developed for more than three centuries, from one end of Europe. Because what the witches, writes Peter Burke, is one of the most striking examples of interaction between the classical tradition and popular. "
course I am for the second option, the question posed by Castelli. Consider the fact that often in one of Carnival costumes "interpreted" in a very burlesque is the man with the miter on his head (a sort of "dad") while in the public punishment of "witches" are often used to disguise, dress Masked and joke. Interactions. For better or worse. It is not said that common sense be deemed a 'good' rather than being the result of an inquisitorial culture that would be good to understand and then overcome.
The punishment of the witch - Grevenbroch
"In this context, it is easy to understand why, as pointed out by Ginzburg, is right in the carnival period (late winter, early spring) that, across Europe, reported cults, myths, rituals and shamanistic background, which he summarized in a map that divide them: ecstatic journeys in the wake of gods mostly female; battles in ecstasy, mainly for fertility, semi-bestial appearances during the 12 days, groups of young people dressed as animals, mainly during the 12 days, battles for fertility rituals, apparitions of dead people predestined to [*]. Moreover, the connection between Witchcraft and going masked is highlighted and reiterated linguistic survey on European names of the witch, in particular where the two terms of the romance, the Northern Italian type masca "witch" and the Provencal grimaou appear related to the concept of form. "
my A note: Note that there is another period of "magic" that runs over 12 days referred to as "magic" and that's what comes from Christmas to Epiphany, and even there the 'disguise' take on key roles.
Carnival as a contact point, then, and its importance is also given by the reminder of the fundamental function of all the rituals that are asserted in the 'moments of transition', particularly in the most delicate moment in the transition from the absolute or the summer, days delicate as seals of propitiatory magic and hope. And it is 'in moments of transition' that we know as "the moment stops and everything is possible ...
[*] Death and mourning ritual, Ernesto de Martino
texts cited:
Masca vel Stria: a symbolic system Alpine, Franco Castelli , reported in the Proceedings of the Fourth National Congress of Historical Studies held in anthropological Triora (Imperia), on 22-24 October 2004.
The Witch and the crucifix Paul's Gate, editions Castel Negrino
The country's hunger Piero Camporesi
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