The Carnival is Over
We're all in the same boat ready to float off the edge of the world
The flat old world
The street is a sideshow from the peddler to the corner girl
Life is a carnival, it's in the book
Life is a carnival, take another look
Life is a Carnival
Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Robbie Robertson
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| Sometimes it all seems a bit Disneyfied |
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, Carnival is (a special occasion or period of) public enjoyment and entertainment involving wearing unusual clothes, dancing, and eating and drinking, usually held in the streets of a city:
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| Why anyone would dress up as Nigel Farage is beyond me..... |
Though the Encyclopaedia Britannica adds that, The derivation of the word [Carnival] is uncertain, though it possibly can be traced to the medieval Latin carnem levare or carnelevarium, which means to take away or remove meat. This coincides with the fact that Carnival is the final festivity before the commencement of the austere 40 days of Lent, during which Roman Catholics in earlier times fasted, abstained from eating meat, and followed other ascetic practices.
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| It's all about the selfie |
Carnival takes place in the ten days leading up to Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Sometimes called Shrovetide, it ends on Shrove Tuesday, or Martedi Grasso, or Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) and may date back even to pre-Christian times when it was customary to consume preserved meats etc before the warm weather made it difficult to keep them longer.
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| Welcome to my world |
The Carnival in Venice is, nowadays, a world-famous event and it attracts some three million visitors each year, though it had fallen out of fashion, having been banned at times in the past, and it was only recreated in 1979. It wasn’t long after that that I was in Venice with Amanda, my wife, and we were very impressed by the costumes and the atmosphere. So much so that I long yearned to return, and I had booked a place to stay last year, 2024, though had to cancel when Amanda died.
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| Get me out of here.... |
So, this year, I made it, at least for some of it. I didn’t dress up, I didn’t dance the minuet at any of the balls (you need a partner for that) but I did take a lot of photographs.
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| Why did I sign up for this? |
On the last Saturday before Ash Wednesday some 130,000 people were said to have come for the day (which is three times the current population of the city of Venice) and that doesn’t account for the very many, me included, who were staying in hotels or apartments.
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| Me? I'm just a lassie from Glasgow..... |
Apparently 60% of these were non-Italian and one in five spoke French, though I also met masqueraders from the United States and South America.
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| A green-eyed Geisha |
Men and women parade, especially in Piazza San Marco, in elaborate costumes, many of them in the tradition of the Commedia dell’Arte, and some just pretending to be famous characters:
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| Just call me Joe, your Dogeship...... |
though the majority, I would say, represented either Casanova (this year’s theme) or more generally eighteenth-century Venetian aristocracy.
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| Now which of you delightful ladies is free? |
The clothes tend to be very fine, and so are the prices - which start at around €400 for 24 hours but could go way beyond that. The dressing up, though, is only part of it. The real thing is to take part in one of the Grand Balls, such as the Doge's Ball on the last Saturday of the Carnival for which back row seats in the Main Salon usually start around €2500 per person. The Ball of Dreams and Grand Ball Carnival in Love in Pallazo Ca’Zen ai Frari are apparently more reasonably priced, starting at around €700.....
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| Things haven't changed much at Caffè Florian since 1720 |
Apart from (and for hygiene reasons generally not rented with) the clothing, there are the masks, of which there are a number of classic examples. Masks were worn as disguise, so that people of different classes could mix, or so people of the same gender could liaise, or so that you would not be recognised if misbehaving.
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| Guy Williams? Sorry, wrong number.... [Pace, Zorro!] |
They also created an atmosphere charged with mystery and danger, which added to the attraction of the hedonistic period. Some are crafted from leather or velvet,
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| La Colombina - the little dove |
others of porcelain or rich materials, but I believe quite a number now are plastic and are manufactured abroad.
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| The Volto (Larva) mask |
Full faced masks can be uncomfortable and don’t allow the wearer to eat or drink, so some just cover the eyes. The bauta mask is traditional Venetian and covers the face with a white base and a pointed nose but allows the wearer to eat and drink and talk.
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| Two Bautas, with Tabarros and Tricorns |
This mask is typically worn with a black cape and a tricorn hat and was, so I hear, favoured by Giacomo Casanova whose story was the subject of a spectacular show at the Arsenale,
which was advertised as Not a historical tale, but a dreamy show of evocative images that enclose the essence of Casanova told by Henriette, the only woman he ever loved and never had (they say…)
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| Henriette |
The show combined narrative and music with waterborne scenes and figures, set against some stunning images which were projected onto fountains.
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| Giacomo Casanova |
Anyway, it is a colourful and entertaining, if sometimes heavily crowded, time in Venice, and it isn't just for the rich or refined. On the last Saturday night the Fish Market became a disco, and the bars were filled with unmasked youth.
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| Disco in Il mercato ittico di Rialto |
Then, as Ash Wednesday dawned, the place was quiet. It was over, for another year, and the finery was returned to the ateliers, the masks carefully packed into cases, and the streets were swept.
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| The Carnival Is Over - move on now..... |
With virtually no connection but the title, the song, The Carnival Is Over comes to mind. It was written by Tom Springfield (brother of Dusty), for the Australian folk pop group the Seekers and based on a Russian folk song. The song became the Seekers' signature recording, and at its 1965 sales peak, the single was selling 93,000 copies per day in the UK with total sales of at least 1.41 million in the UK alone. I suppose it appeals to my soft centre, and I can hear it now echoing in the tiny courtyard where I stayed.
This will be our last goodbye.
Though the carnival is over,
I will love you till I die.
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| It was fun while it lasted |