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Italian Carnival

Hundred and hundreds of years ago, the followers ofthe Catholic religion in Italy started the tradition ofholding a wild costume festival right before the firstday of Lent. Because Catholics are not supposed to

eat meat during Lent, they called their festival,carnevale which means to put away the meat. Astime passed, carnivals in Italy became quite famous;and in fact the practice spread to France, Spain, and

all the Catholic countries in Europe. Then as theFrench, Spanish, and Portuguese began to take controlof the Americas and other parts of the world, theybrought with them their tradition of celebratingcarnival.

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ITALIAN CARNIVAL MASKPULCINELLA

Pulcinella is a character that emerges

powerfully from the Commedia dellArte.

Philosophical, eternally melancholic dreamer as

only a representant person of the napolitanculture could be, Pulcinella has spirit of his own.

No tension or despair, his melancholic approach

to life makes him coasts problems, situations,

life adventure and, at the end, simply getting

out of everything, in the same simply manner ashow he got involved. His costume is poor and

white.He wears a black mask and the coppolone

hat.

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ARLECCHINO

Arlecchino is a poor character. He wears a

colourfull pached costume. A poem of the

masks tells that all the regional masks have

sewed a piece of the dress. Arlecchino is asimple character. With his simpaty he outwits

all the arrogant and greedly personages. He has

an anarchic kind of behavior, he is always

hungry and without money. He is the engine of

the action in the story of the Commediadell'arte. The first actor that played with the

Arlecchino's mask was Alberto Naselli in

Bergamo, 1572.

ITALIAN CARNIVAL MASK

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ITALIAN CARNIVAL MASK

DOCTOR PESTE

This mask is very famous and hasa particular form. It is whitewith a long beak made ofpasta and used by doctors toprotect themselves from thecontamination plague.

The doctors wear a long blackdress.

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ITALIAN CARNIVAL MASKBRIGHELLA

Brighella Cavicchio from ValBrembana is his whole

name.

This mask represents a cunning, clever servant

that can help his master, but even deceives him.He is an unscropulouse character and he is able to

do every kind of job: he can become a barman, a

soldier or a thief. He is the fulest servant of the

Commediadell'Arte.

He is a mask from Bergamo Alta. He wears a

strange green lined shirt, large trousers, a short

cloak and a funny hat. His way of speaking is

dialect from Bergamo.