What is the carnival about? Another reason to have a party? Dances? Another tourist attraction for hundreds of thousands of people? Or perhaps it is something with a deeper meaning? Where to look for it, though, when the vast majority of carnivals worldwide is but a package with nothing much inside?
Carnival has lost its roles and functions which it had serverd for centuries. What did it use to be, then?
The word "carnival" originates from Italian and it means "farewell to meat".
That's our first trace. Carnival is based on Christian liturgical year, as it happens during the time period before the Great Lent, which lasts 46 days. Starting from Ash Wednesday, which commences Great Lent, people didn't use to eat meat. (If anyone of you is interested why the number is 46 instead of 40, 30 or 100, feel free to ask me in the comment section. All you questions are welcomed.) That was the way of preparation for Easter.
People needed to have energy to fast. They needed to satiate or even saturate. To put in different words, how not to feast if you will soon have to fast.
Anyway, that is something typical of many religions. The fast intertwining with the feast. Satisfying bodily needs in turns with satisfying emotional needs.
If you ask a contemporary carnival party-goer what he or she is preparing for, they would surely look at you with confusion.
For as I have mentioned before, the roots of the carnival faded away in the historical shadows.
Thus, where should we look for the roots of carnival?
Perhaps in its source? In Italy? The famous Venetian carnival?
YES, Italy it is, not necessarily Venice, though.
Sardinia would be better, as far as I'm concerned.
To be more specific, small towns in the mountains in the centre of the island. Why not cities, then?
Why not cities, though?
Because places where you have sectors, parking zones and ticket offices for carnival don't make for a real carnival any more.
The countryside is a different story: spontaneous fun, wine, cheese, sweet cookies (not necessarily for sale, rather as a treat) and masks. Unbelievable masks. Each village having its own: animalistic, anthropomorphic, immersed in folk rituals, pre-Christian times.
This is not a show. There are characters in masks strolling on the streets. There are children in uniforms. As long as they don't put them on a stage and don't sell tickets, and the bull-man bumping into you will treat you with a piece of cheese, the spirit of carnival won't be gone.
Pictures comment: All photos from Sardinia 2018 Carnival (author: Slawko)