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Question: Are there any holidays native to your host country that you have experienced, or are looking forward to experiencing? What are the customs of this holiday? Does school close? Do people take vacations?
Written by: Alfred Amasanti
Carnavale (also known as Carnaval or Mardi Gras) is one of Italy’s best-known holiday celebrations. The festival takes place from the 10 days before Lent and ends during Ash Wednesday, and is very popular amongst most Catholic countries. At its root, the holiday was meant to celebrate everything that Catholics were not going to be able to take part in during the forty days of Lent; the word carnival itself comes from “carna vale,” which is Latin for “farewell to meat” (since Catholics are not allowed to eat meat during Lent).
I had the opportunity to participate in Europe’s most famous carnival, the Carnival of Venice. During this day, the city of bridges and canals becomes flooded by the hundreds of thousands of tourists coming in to watch the celebrations. The locals put on masks and costumes and parade alongside the famous Piazza di San Marco as if they still belonged in the aristocracy of the 1600s. The comuna itself puts up a show at the piazza where they play local music and present some acts and costumes unique to the city of Venice.
At night, all the locals and tourists who are visiting go partying at the open piazzas and even in some of Venice’s well-known locations such as the Ponte Rialto. Most people wear masks but not costumes, since they’re not very practical for dancing. I travelled to Venice with 17 other Bentley students who are also studying in Italy. We danced at an open piazza near Academia where the beer company Heineken had put up a stage with a DJ, a surround system and a few stands to sell their products.
Here in Rome, the celebrations were very different. Since Carnavale lasts 10 days, I was able to experience it in two different cities. They celebrated the festivities by holding a parade where the typical masks and costumes were showcased. At night, our school programme introduced us to an apperativo bar/club where everyone continued the age-old tradition of putting on costumes and having fun.
One noticeable difference between the two cities’ celebrationswas that in Rome people dressed up as if it was Halloween, with costumes ranging from Marge Simpson to a slutty devil. In Venice, on the other hand, the masks showcased a more skillful manufacture, and people stayed true to the same costumes that would have been used 400 years ago.
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