Carnevale is in full swing all over Italy from Venice to Sicily - it began on February 15th and winds up on March 4th and during this feast of joy Italy puts on some energetic street parties full of masquerading, parading in fantastic costumes, liscio dancing (ballroom/folk dancing) fun and intrigue.
The Carnevale delle Madonie, held in the village of Castellana Sicula in the Madonie Mountains, in the central north of Sicily, is one of them – it is in its 41st year.
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It was this Carnevale, in February 2008, in the village of Castellana Sicula, which was unforgettable. During this February I was staying in Polizzi Generosa, 15 minutes away, with my husband, and two lively Australian girls, just out of school; one of them my youngest daughter and the fun of Carnevale was in full swing.
The folk like Liscio dancing was a nightly event and they had been whirled around the dance floors of the neighbouring village Petralia Sottana learning quickly to move in sync with the improvised, yet understood smooth, polished moves of the young Sicilian men: the “masters” of Liscio dancing who moved on the floor as if they were returning victorious Bourbon soldiers or Garabaldini with names like Tancredi.
On the Sunday afternoon, a couple of days before Martedi Grasso, “Fat Tuesday” – the last day of Carnevale, with two animated Australian girls masquerading as Australian cowgirls, decked out with spurs on their boots and scarves around their necks, we headed to join the fun, around 4pm, in the wintery streets of Castellana.
It was when a nimble reverent Mother Superior, dressed in her black garbadine habit with an almost snow white oshiroi like face, started to spin and move with one of the Australian cowgirls, with plaits and red cowboy scarf, in the confetti covered street of Castellana Sicula that I knew we were in for a bit of lawless fun on that Sunday.
Shrove Tuesday, Martedi Grasso or Mardi Gras, marks the end of Carnevale – that festival of colour, confetti parades of allegorical floats, masquerading, liscio dancing, food, wine, excess and joking which has its roots in the pre Christian festivals of Saturnalia and Bacchanalia. It heralds the eve of the penitential season of Lent and is celebrated in a host of Catholic countries.
It is Venice, the bewitching, medieval lagoon city in the north which normally takes centre stage when Carnevale is in full swing and one day I will visit the enchanting Venice at Carnevale time just to be part of the promenading spectacle of tangible intrigue and extravagant costumes.
Yet, the Carnevale of 2008 in the mountains of central northern Sicily in Castellana Sicula, may not have the fabulous costumes of Venice but its energy, surprise and improvisation made it captivating.
Some of the Carnevale revellers masked and unrevealed and others freely “wearing” their own faces, grabbed any of the masquerading party goers and danced in the street as decorated floats including a solid, black Spanish Toro with flashing red eyes surrounded by Spanish senoritas in black lace, rolled slowly down Castellana’s main street.
A medieval hooded knight danced with an orange beaked penguin as robed monks cavorted with a masked Columbina.
The colourful float of the Castellana primary school, sponsored by the Madonie National Park, “Parco delle Madonie”, pulled by a lumbering tractor, full of school children dressed in polka dot clown costumes throwing confetti over the costumed crowd, rolled on down the street.
Pairs of polka dotted small clowns walking behind tall sauntering trees lifted the confetti as they moved. The Carabinieri, in their regular smart costume, (the full ceremonial one is designed by Valentino) strutted and strolled as they worked.
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By 6pm, the full darkness of a Sicilian winter in the mountains descended and the floats were burning with coloured lights, dance music filled the streets.
I was one of the revellers that Carnevale," wearing my own mask" when, hands grabbed my belted waist from behind and turned me. I was in the control of a gyrating “cross dresser” who could really move. I just had to move with him – after all Carnevale is that feast where “to forget” and embrace “freedom of manners” are just the rules.
The floats stopped in the middle of the street and revellers, the Australian cowgirls among them, danced in the dimly lit streets and on the adorned floats to have fun and forget before the beginning of Lent.
Along with the Carnevale delle Madonie in Castellana Sicula, Termini Imerese on the Tyrrhenian Coast, 40 minutes from Polizzi, holds a lively one. However, the most famous in Sicily is the Carnevale held in Acireale on the Ionian coast halfway between Taormina and Catania. It is said to be riotous, in true Rio style.
This year, the Carnevale delle Madonie's main parade will be held on Sunday March the 2nd.
Salve,
Suzanne
