Behind the mask

Just as one festival ends in Italy, so another begins. BMS World Mission worker Alex Anderson writes about a long-standing tradition, complete with wailing widows, people dressed as trees and street parades.

Meeting Zorro, Shrek or Snow White on our way to church is quite common as this time of year!

It’s Carnevale in Italy – a time of eating, drinking and celebration before the Lenten period of abstinence.

Every town and village in Basilicata, the region in which we are based, begins celebrations on 17 January and continues right up until the period of Lent (starting on 22 February this year).

It seems that in the south of Italy the party never really stops. Having previously experienced the sophisticated carnivals of the Venetians with their sumptuous costumes and elegant masks, I have found Carnevale down in the south of Italy is something completely different.

There are many recurrent themes in this area: the link with ancient fertility rites, the start of the new agricultural season, the awakening of spring, the death out of the old year and the welcoming of the new, and the relationship with the forest and the land.

Costumes are relatively simple, reflecting the poor, agricultural life people lead. To these traditions, elements of Christian civilisation have been creatively grafted.

Bears and bells
Basilicata is the theatre to some of the best-preserved and most bizarre traditions of the south, whose roots probably go back to the pre-Greek era and to the Roman festival of Saturnalia.

In the villages all around our town, Matera, people dress up as trees (right) or animals.

Often, on the last day of Carnevale, ‘Martedi Grasso’ (literally ‘Fat Tuesday’), there is someone dressed up as a huge brown bear (representing nature) who comes out of the forest to kidnap and kill the spirit of Carnevale represented by a young man.

Men parade through the streets ringing cowbells traditionally made of hollowed-out wooden bowls and wearing frightening, horned masks made of animal hide and wood.

The dead ‘Carnevale’ is carried through the streets on a decorated board (left) followed by his wailing widow.

When he arrives at the doors of the main church it spells the end of the festival.

Great mystery
It is puzzling to think that, though the Pope resides among them, not all Italians are as ‘Catholic’ as one might expect.

Italy remains, as the journalist Luigi Barzini put it, “gloriously pagan”. In Italy, he said, “Christianity has not deeply disturbed the happy traditions and customs of ancient Greece and Rome” but is a “thin veneer over older customs”.

This is part of the great mystery of Italy. Appearances are very deceptive. Yet much is invested in maintaining appearances and it seems that any excuse is valid for a party.

We need to remind them that Jesus was not dressed in an Armani suit but his beauty came from a heart entirely dedicated to the Father and the only party ultimately worth being invited to is the Wedding Feast of the Lamb (Rev 19: 9).

Alex Anderson writes a column about Easter in Italy for the next issue of engage magazine. Subscribe now to get a copy delivered directly to you four times a year.

Photo credits: Emiliano (boy as Zorro); Santi (Masks); Fiore Silvestro Barbato (Tree person); gnuckx (Venice carnival mask)

02/02/2012