After the Parade

Carneval has gone, making way for the much more sober period of Lent, but not without leaving its mark!

(photo by Fulvio)

Molfetta's 51st Annual Carneval Parade

It's Carneval time again and these are three of the four floats in this year's parade.
I was lucky enough to find them parked and waiting for today's parade early this morning before I went to work. Lucky because otherwise I could never have shared them with you because I refuse to go to Carneval parades.

I am a cold weather wimp and just cannot embrace any sort of activity that forces me to be outside in the evening in the nasty cold and bone-chillingly damp climate we have here at this time of year. Plus the whole crowd scene...I do not handle crowds well!

I'm not sure what they mean - this type of float generally has some sort of political satire behind it, but just as I met one of the event organisers, my train pulled into the station and I had to dash off. I'm just hoping the one in the first photo, entitled "Career Women," has some deeper meaning to it...if I find out, I'll let you know!

Fat Tuesday

This year is the 50th anniversary of the Molfetta Carnival Festival. A parade was held on Sunday and a repeat show will take place this afternoon at 3p.m. There are four of these large floats made of papier-mache by Molfettan craftsmen, collaborating for the first time this year with the float-makers of Putignano (an Apulian town where Italy's oldest Carnival festival is held). Denny Mendez (Miss Italy 1996) will be presenting the parade today. After the parade a Fat Tuesday party will be held in the basketball arena with music, dancing and an appearance by the Cuban singer Miguel Enriquez.

Every town that holds a Carnival festival has its own carnival character. In Molfetta we have "U Toeme." I'm sorry I don't have a photo of him for you, but basically he looks like a scarecrow stuffed with newspaper and straw. He lies dead on a cart pulled by hand, surrounded by mourners, because his is a funeral procession. He represents the Carnival itself and is the very last float in the parade, symbolising the end of the festivities. At the end of the parade he is burned.

King Henry

This weekend was the peak of Carnival festivities. The Carnival "season" begins January 7 and then continues until Fat Tuesday, the day before the beginning of Lent. This can be a longer or shorter period of time depending on when Easter falls each year.

During the entire season you will see children out and about dressed up in costumes as princesses, animals, popular cartoon characters, Zorro, etc. They run around city parks throwing confetti and streamers and spraying colored goop and stink bombs. For an American like me, it seems like a fantastic, extended Halloween.

These last few days of Carnival are celebrated around Italy with parades including elaborate floats, often with themes of political satire, and costumed groups that may sing and/or dance. There are also carnival balls, usually organised for children, but not only. One of the largest and oldest Carnival celebrations in Italy is held in Putignano, right here in Apulia.

Since I have low tolerance for both crowds and cold weather (two essential elements of outdoor Carnival events), I organised a party at home this year. King Henry is featured in the photo above, if you'd like to see the rest of us, check out my blog Amid the Olive Trees (on side bar).

Saint Conrad's Festival, part 4

Scenes from the carnival.

The Ferris Wheel: a classic!

Whee! What fun! My dinner's coming back up!