Carnival

The festive season of Carnival occurs immediately before Lent during February  and is by definition a public celebration combining parades with themes such as circus and masquerades in public streets.

Mainly Carnival is celebrated by Roman Catholics , two of the most famous are the Brazilian Carnival of Rio De Janeiro and the Italian masked Carnival of Venice . Carnival traditions  are based on the Lenten period from the Gospel , where people would hold no parties ,celebrations .and fast by not consuming any rich foods such as dairy's,fats ,meats and sugars.This would last for forty days and after that time the whole community would throw a huge Carnival party.Whilst Carnival forms part of the history of the Roman church , some traditions do date back to the ancient Roman festivals called Saturnalia and Bacchanalia and have been Incorporated into the Venetian masked  Carnival.

Perhaps the best known traditions include  carnival parades ,  and  masquerade masked balls which were first recorded in medieval Italy in the Carnival of Venice .these themes quickly spread to Portugal,Spain and France and then on to Germany.

The term Carne vale is Latin for "farewell to meat" which explains the fasting for Lent  Alternatively it could be translated to "farewell to the flesh" which is a motto embraced by many as an encouragement to let go of your everyday self and embrace the carefree nature of the festival.

The first Carnival of Venice was recorded in 1268, although it was restricted by church laws forbidding the wearing of masks , a main feature of the Italian Carnival .Venetian masked  Carnival was stopped altogether after its fall to Austria in 1798 , until its revival in the 20th century .

There are two main Italian Festivals , the first is Carnival of Viareggio .which is characterised by its parades and floats . The carnival of Ivrea has a famous battle of the oranges where people have a food fight in the streets with citrus fruits.

In summary Carnival stretches across the world to every country and religion who adapt it to suite there customs , with the most famous being the Venetian Carnival.

If you would like to see our great range of Venetian masks visit www.venetianmasquerademasks.co.uk 

History Of The Masked Ball

Masked balls came about in the 15^th century due to the celebrations of marriages and other political and dynastic events of the late medieval court life of France and the ducal court of Burgundy.

Two well known masked balls were the bal des sauvages(wild men’s ball) and the morisco(costumed ball)

One of the earliest known masquerade mask balls was in 1393 in France to celebrate the marriage of the queen’s lady in waiting. It came to be known as the bal des ardents (burning men’s ball) due to the king and four nobleman dressing up as wild men and being chained together. There costumes and masks were linen cloth soaked in pitch and wax with hemp attached to give off a shaggy unkempt look . In view of the obvious danger of fire from the torch bearers, the king ordered them to keep back. The only person who was not told this was the king’s brother who after arriving late wished to know the identity of the men and so approached with a lit torch but accidently set one of the men on fire. Only the king and one other knight survived and from then on the occasion was known as the ball of the burning men.

Another occasion where a masked ball backfired was in the court of King Gustav the 3^rd of Sweden in 1792 when he was assassinated during a masked ball by nobleman Jacob Anckarstrom and his henchman, who only words were “good day”, fine mask before shooting him in the spine.

It was in Italy during the renaissance that masked balls extended into public events for the upper classes, made famous by carnival .England joined in with the fashion of Venetian masked balls in the 18^th century after a Swiss count arrived in London and introduced the idea of a semi public masked ball in the Vauxhall gardens of London. A standard item of these masked balls was a dress called a Vandyke, which was influenced by van dykes Gainsborough blue boy portrait, this lead to many portraits being painted with the sitters in fancy dress and masquerade masks.

The object of most masks for a ball was to set up a game in which guests had to guess the identity of other guests which added a humorous affect to another wise typical ball.

It was during the 1950s that masks for a ball had a resurgence of popularity due to the multi millionaire interior decorator don Carlos de Beistegui de Yturbe  purchasing the palazzo  labia in Venice . He hosted one of the largest and lavish parties of the 20th century called le bal oriental. The guests included European royalty as well as Orson Welles, Christian Dior, Salvador Dali and Nina Ricci.

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