Carnival in Germany and other German-speaking lands
Kolyazin V.F. From Mystery to Carnival: Theatricality of the German Religious
And areal scenes of the early and late Middle Ages. - M.: Nauka, 2002, p. 88-118
Carnival is an ancient and unusually versatile phenomenon. He has many faces, like a Hindu deity, because he combines the ethos and genre formations of pagan ritual and church action, the centuries-old traditions of buffoonery and oral literature, the square spectacle and the most ancient forms of theater. Carnival itself is a ritual theater performed by the people on the street, but carnival, with its powerful field of play and visual forms, is also an integral element of the modern theatrical worldview. The European stage from time to time experienced powerful waves of carnivalization (let's name at least the names of Reinhardt, Vakhtangov, Evreinov, Meyerhold, Brecht, Besson, Mnushkin). And today, carnival and various carnival forms are a powerful generator of ideas for modern theatrical thinking. Meanwhile, there are almost no works on the history of the German carnival in Russia.
Carnival in the broad sense of the word, according to M. Bakhtin's definition, is "the totality of all the various festivities, rituals and forms of the carnival type" 1 . Such an interpretation implies consideration of the holy holidays of the church annual cycle - Christmas time (Zwö lften), Lent Eve (Fastnacnt), Trinity Days (Pfingsten), Harvest Festival (Erntefest). If we add here the rituals and secular holidays of the Middle Ages, with their winter, spring, summer and autumn cycles (the reconstruction of the annual calendar of all these holidays was proposed by M. Reutin) 2, then we get a concept that is comprehensive, if not exorbitantly expanded. Carnival in the narrow sense of the word, as it is commonly considered in the German-speaking tradition, is fastnacht or fascing - festivities that take place during the six "fat days" preceding Ash Wednesday (Aschermittwoch), the beginning of Lent - Quadragint. Every year in February, starting from Thursday and ending on Tuesday of the following week, a crowd of merry mummers performed many clownish rites that violated all norms of Christian and social order. Jesters and buffoonery as an expression of extreme freedom of behavior and creativity ruled the medieval city these days.
Carnival in German-speaking countries, called there most often by regional synonyms: Fasching - in Munich, Fastnacht - in Frankfurt or Basel, Fastelovend - in Cologne, or Schembartlauf ) - in Nuremberg, differs significantly from the carnival-
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La in the Italian regions, although he borrowed a lot from him, developing for a long time in parallel under the dictates of the Vatican - the capital of Catholicism. The German carnival is a highly ordered and fairly closed structure, much closer to church canons than the Italian or French carnival.
About the carnival in Germany (however, not only in Germany) there are mountains of research. It has been considered and is being considered from the historical-cultural, anthropological, theological, folklore, theatrical, philological, and finally semiotic points of view. Some are occupied by the religious subtext of the action, others by pure carnival forms, the third by the idea of buffoonery and the clownish worldview, and the fourth by the modeling of signs-parodies.
The folklore approach to carnival experienced a real revival in post-war Germany, firmly connected with the theological one, centers of its study were formed in Munich, Freiburg, Konstanz, Nuremberg. The Germans are proud of their school of folklore-theological "carnival studies", founded by the Munich culturologist Dietz Rüdiger Moser and continued by his students - Werner Moser, Jürgen Küster and others. In the Swabian-Allemanic region, a more secular tradition is preferred; Here, not far from Constanta, the Museum of the History of the Carnival was created following the example of the Dutch. The Swiss (and above all the Basel researchers who have at their disposal a museum in Binnigen) take their historical and national traditions as a starting point.
Our subject is special, rather specific - the theatrical and spectacular side of the carnival, the theatrical forms nurtured by it and grown on its soil, its theatrical (or proto-theatrical) types, masks, costumes, props and forms of performance (disguise), a system of allegories, the entire richest repertoire of buffoonery , i.e. specific folk acting, its simplest and more complex spatial and decorative techniques. It goes without saying that in this case it is impossible to abstract from the history of the issue, from various areas of "carnival studies" (since it is there that the main sources of study are contained), from their polemics and contradictions.
From the very beginning, it should be said that the Russian school of carnival studies, represented primarily by Bakhtin and his followers, sharply diverges from the German one. This contradiction manifested itself with particular force in the discussions of the early 1990s. around the ideas of the Russian philologist on the pages of the Heidelberg magazine "Euphorion" shortly after the translations of Bakhtin's main works on the folk culture of the Renaissance and carnival appeared in Germany - with a huge delay. German researchers, and above all the head of the school D.-R. Moser, did not accept the Bakhtinian concept of grassroots laughter culture. Moser's follower Jurgen Küster wrote: "The history of the origin of the carnival is completely unknown. It was the obscurity of the ancient origins and the early development of the traditional customs of the late Middle Ages that led to numerous speculations about the anthropological structures of the masquerade. It seems highly improbable that the holiday of the Christian
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The calendar, which in its structure for about 1900 years was determined by religious thinking and action, can be measured by anthropological standards. 3 its history (However, Bakhtin's Russian opponent A.Ya. Gurevich considers Bakhtin's concept "rather the mythology of carnival and laughter culture than their actual history" - which is not without a grain of truth, especially in relation to the German carnival).
We will constantly keep this contradiction in mind when talking about carnival forms. Two different approaches to an ancient phenomenon, the origin of which remains unclear - can they be compatible or reconciled? Carnival in the view of the German school is a church-established holiday, a direct continuation of Catholicism; the whole essence of carnival in the understanding of Bakhtin is in the opposition of the areal spirit to church-state officialdom, in the free flight of l "anima allegra (cheerful soul) of the jester. The description and analysis of the carnival for the German school is, first of all, the identification of the Christian meaning and subtext of the main carnival forms and symbols, for Bakhtin, it is the identification of the main motifs of folk culture that violate church dogma.There is a feeling that we are talking about two completely different carnivals.
Carnival has survived all times. Regarding the medieval carnival we are studying (since it is obvious that there is a new carnival of the 18th-19th centuries and a new, highly commercialized carnival of the 20th century), we will accept the periodization proposed by the "Bakhtinist" M. Reutin:
Early Middle Ages - the beginning of the XIII century. Carnival before carnival - agricultural cults with their inherent sequence of fasting, execution-consumption and festive fullness;
- the beginning of the XIII century. - middle of the XVI century. The carnival itself is the ritual basis of the folklore culture of the medieval city. The general loosening of the ritual structure and the emergence of a parodic series;
- middle of the XVI century. - new time. Carnival after carnival;
- the result of a consistent rethinking of areal forms in terms of the Christian tradition 4 .
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Any periodization is, of course, conditional. So, in the XVI-XVII centuries, and even later, "carnival proper" coexisted with "carnival after carnival", and sometimes successfully replaced it altogether. Equally conditional is the classification of carnival characters given by Dietz Rüdiger Moser: tempters, rulers, laymen, jesters, sinners.
Origin of carnival
The school of folklore, headed by Moser, seeks to establish universally in Germany the view of the origin of the carnival from the liturgy. Representatives of this school reject the presence of all sorts of pagan and pre-Christian-Germanic roots in the carnival, stating that this point of view is derived not from tradition, but from the historical mythology of the 19th century. and then supported by the Nazis for their propaganda purposes.
On the whole, the history of carnival can be viewed as the history of its incessant bans by the church, its secularization and gradual desecularization, which resulted in the semi-secular carnivals and masquerades of the 19th century organized by various guilds and the semi-commercialized carnival of the 20th century. The medieval carnival thus combines sometimes competing church and secular traditions.
Since ancient times, carnival has been associated with clerical holidays, with the amusements of the liturgical cycle - it either imitated them, or competed with them.
But in the same way, he is a product of the playful creativity of the urban masses, who ridiculed certain disorders and sought entertainment in masquerade and satire. In more recent times, especially in the 20th century, carnivals have taken on the character of commercial and entertainment enterprises on a huge scale, often with political overtones. Today, in many cities in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, there is a whole carnival industry. But at first it was primarily a procession, a procession not associated with any community, an organization that goes back to pagan customs, to the cult of spring festivities, pleasing the gods of fertility and natural forces.
Etymologists often derive the word "carnival" directly from Latin, from "char" - a festively decorated ship-shaped cart, an indispensable feature of any procession of antiquity. Many historians, including Sorbonne professor Jacques Heyers, consider such interpretations to be superficial. Ancient, often uncontrolled meanings in the Middle Ages are erased from memory, giving way to "Christian influences, new symbols of a gradually maturing ritual that developed according to its own rhythm" 5 . Much more accurate and justified is the interpretation of carnival as the last days on the eve of fasting, days of unlimited freedom, when you can still eat meat: carne vale. Thus, carnival is also a ceremony of transition from "Fat Tuesday" (Fetter Dienstag) to "Ash Wednesday" (Wednesday in the first week of Great Lent - Aschermittwoch), a celebration of abundance, pleasing the flesh, but also the fight against the coming Lent.
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Many folklorists (in particular, Uwe Schulz, the author of the well-known study "Feast. Its history in the aspect of culture from antiquity to the present day", Munich, 1988) 6 consider ancient Roman saturnalia to be the source of the carnival in Germany. The excavations of the Cologne archaeologists testify that the Hellenistic-Orientalist mystery cults penetrated the Rhine c at the latest in the 2nd millennium of our era. The Roman pantheon in its entirety moved here, as well as the veneration of those gods who were the forerunners of carnival amusements and buffoonish mischief.
The Roman conquerors and merchants brought the feast of Saturnalia with them everywhere, wherever fate threw them, or rather, the will of the emperor. Roman soldiers did not forget about their holidays during campaigns - they dressed in women's clothes, put on wigs with a scythe, took a spindle in their hand, and spoke in falsetto. Certain rituals of the Romans, associated with the seasonal alternation of death and becoming, light and darkness, the veneration of fertility magic and the taming of evil demons, later merged with Germanic cults and subsequently merged into Christianity. Many features of the Roman saturnalia have been preserved in a modified form in the carnival to this day.
The Romans held a seven-day festival in honor of Saturn in mid-December, during which the slaves were set free, and from among the representatives of the lower class a jester's king was elected, who surrounded himself with dignitaries elected by dice. Giving foolish orders and urging his retinue to drink, dance, rage and indulge in revelry, he thereby signaled the reign of a mad world. At the time of Saturnalia, city councils and courts stopped working, schools were closed. Everyone put on masquerade costumes, sat down at the tables and began to feast and give each friend all kinds of gifts, and above all wax candles. The main formative principles of Saturnalia were closely intertwined universal equality and turning the normal "upside down" - "the world turned upside down" ("the world inside out" - to use the idiom invented by Tick). Everyone put on a hat, which was considered a symbol of freedom. Slaves behaved like masters, allowing themselves to be served at feasts. Slaves were given four liters of wine in excess of the norm (because of which Cato dubbed the Roman carnival "wet days of Saturn"). Saturnalia ended with a cruel action: the jester's king was publicly executed.
Another holiday of the ancient Romans - lupercalia, held in February in honor of the god Faun (otherwise - Luperc) and associated with the ancient magic of fertility, also left its mark on the rituals of the Germans. Roman priests flogged passers-by, mostly women, with magical belts cut from the skins of sacrificial animals (according to legend, this stimulated fertility). In the rituals of the Germans, belts were replaced by rods, the blows of which were supposed to contribute to the fertility of the earth, people and animals. This custom was preserved for a very long time in the rural carnival, while in the city carnival the rods were transformed into beaters or rattles. In the Allemanian carnival, the flesh before the beginning of the 20th century. the custom of sectioning with an inflated pig bladder was preserved.
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The ancient Germans borrowed from the Romans many other pre-Christian cults and customs, which they also borrowed from other peoples, for example, various comic semantic reversals, equalization of the upper and lower social strata, the custom of carrying a luxurious ship on wheels during the procession ( known in ancient Babylon as an element of the procession in honor of the god Marduk, and in ancient egypt as the "ship of Osiris" in the procession in honor of his wife, the goddess Isis, who went on a ship in search of the body of her murdered husband)
One of the findings of the Cologne archaeologists is noteworthy: an image (stone plaquette) of a Roman ship of fools, which art critics interpret as the personification of an orgy of drunken Eros 7 . The find clearly confirms the importance of the jester's ship (long before the literary image of Sebastian Brant's poem) as one of the most ancient all-European carnival rituals. The lavishly decorated ship-shaped carriage passes through all the cultures of the ancient world and is firmly established in the carnival, where it is theatricalized in various ways, as can be seen in the example of the Cologne fastnacht or the Nuremberg Schembartlauf.
All these ancient rituals, with their mockery of the earthly bonds that bind a person, a short-term triumph over injustice, expressed a whole complex of ethical and aesthetic aspirations of a person of the pre-Christian era, the era of pagan myths: longing for a happy state of mankind before the emergence of the state with its forms of oppression, the desire to intervene in the cycle of nature and overcome death - and at the same time they represented the philosophy of the pra-carnival.
frankfurt carnival
The pagan traditions held out for a particularly long time in Frankfurt. Frankfurt carnivals until the beginning of the 17th century. were associated with light, fire and noise. The ancient Germans believed in nature spirits and demons. Ice and snow they considered the product of winter demons, who, fearing daylight and noise, did their deeds in the dark nights. Therefore, light and noise were the first means of combating these evil spirits. The magic of fire in German folk beliefs is associated with the veneration of the sun. In rural carnivals, the carrying and throwing up of torches and the descent of flaming wheels and rings down the mountain are common pastimes. The audience had the feeling that "the sun is falling from the sky" 8 .
Flaming torches in the festivities of the beginning of spring have been known since the early Middle Ages. The devastating fire in the monastery of Lorsch in 1090, according to the chronicles, happened precisely because of the carnival. From ancient times they burned an effigy of winter in the fire, hoping in this way to get rid of evil. This custom acquired its interpretation in medieval Frankfurt, where symbolic images of winter were thrown into the icy water of the Main and a magnificent carnival funeral was held.
The traditional Frankfurt carnival is older and more mischievous than the Mainz and even Cologne ones. Fearing the wildness of masked jesters, the city council already in 1355 banned the wearing of masks (Vermummungsverbot). On the margins of the historical document there is a laconic note by a scribe of a later time: "not observed during the carnival."
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Despite such decisions of the council, the people of Frankfurt did not abandon the carnival. Magnificent feasts of the patricians of the XV century. are described in the diaries of Bernard Rohrbach and his son Job, who belonged to the patrician society of Alten-Limpurg.
The carnival of 1466 turned out to be unusually magnificent. On Sunday and Monday, apprentices, together with women, arranged dinner in one of the houses, after which they started dancing. On Wednesday afternoon, the same company went in procession to the Sachsenhausen district, where the dances took place in three stops, after which the procession went to the church of St. Then the procession went to the church of St. Anthony, where they also arranged a dance. After the third dance, the procession returned. On Wednesday, the carnival society indulged in games, and a competition, a kind of tournament, was arranged near the Old Town Hall. On Thursday, in Becker's garden, the feast was repeated at the expense of the women, in the evening the procession returned to the house right for dinner. On Sunday we ate almond pie. The women who baked it were supposed to be kissed by the whole society. The feast this time continued all night. Monday began with a feast, and ended with apprentices bathing in the "white bath".
Young apprentices, who were not allowed into the house, arranged their carnival on the street, enriching it with various undertakings. A young man decorated with gingerbread (a variant of the carnival king) was carried on a stretcher through the whole city, while blazing bundles of straw were thrown into the sky. The procession ended with a visit to the monastery. In 1497, Job reported that on Shrovetide Tuesday, after a common dinner, the usual tour of the Frankfurt monasteries was undertaken to martyr with the monks and start dancing with the nuns 9 .
On the day after Ash Wednesday (Aschermittwoch; Wednesdays in the first week of Lent), the revelry ended. It ended before Ash Wednesday due to the fact that on Wednesday the penitential service and the most strict fast began. Traditionally, women served fresh green soup at the end of the carnival. On the evening of the first Monday of Lent, they ate only cheese with almonds, milk pudding, eggs and nuts - typical quick meals.
While the Frankfurt patricians were celebrating in their homes, craftsmen, with the help of their guilds, from the 15th century. began to arrange mischievous carnival processions throughout the city. A particularly striking event was when the coopers combined the procession with the festive cooperage right on the frozen Main. Early on Tuesday morning, apprentices went out on the ice and made two huge barrels in front of the public. At the same time, they were watched by four experienced coopers, who were feasting in a tent together with caretakers, guild jurors. At dusk, dancing began around the finished barrels. Then they were solemnly carried to the wine market, which was located on the very embankment between the entrance gate and the gate of Leonard. At the end of the holiday on the following Saturday, both barrels were handed over to the city council. The town chronicles record seven such cooper carnivals between 1608 and 1838.
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Another carnival custom that persisted until the middle of the last century (Goethe describes it) is the children's singing "Hawele lone". On Tuesday, when the carnival was at its peak, the children went from house to house and sang the following rhymes of "Heischeverse" (a kind of carols):
Favorite Shrovetide foods from Epiphany to Maslenitsa in Frankfurt were crebbels (stuffed doughnuts) and sandwiches with fried lard. (In the 19th century, there was even a satirical carnival newspaper called the Frankfurt Krebbel-Zeitung.)
On February 1, 1519, after the death of Emperor Maximilian I, popularly known as the "last knight" of the Habsburg family, the Frankfurt city council issued a decree on the complete ban on carnivals and street processions: "no one has the right to walk the streets, day or night, indulging laughter" 11 .
The first carnival brotherhoods in Frankfurt arose in the 1850s, but they were fond of masquerade balls, and only in 1862 the clown fraternity again went out into the street, with the crowning of the "king of clowns" on the square near the Old Town Hall. In the old days, at the same time, wine flowed from the Fountain of Justice, a bull was roasted right there, and the king showered coins on his subordinates 12 .
Cologne fastnacht
The type of clownish festival in Cologne - Fastelovend or Fasteleer - is closely connected with the historical fate of this city. In the Middle Ages "holy Cologne" ("hillige Coellen") was the second largest city in Germany. Its carnival tradition is based primarily on the fact that the city was intended to embody not only the power of Rome, but also the superiority of Roman culture. In ancient Cologne, Germanic cults, and above all fertility rituals, mixed with Roman customs. Chronicles testify that there were about forty Roman, five Celtic and seven German deities. The fact that Cologne was a Roman colony, the capital of the Roman province of Germania Inferior, would seem to suggest that the Cologne carnival is par excellence a continuation and Christianized form of the Roman saturnalia and lupercalia. In the romantic Cologne carnival of modern times, contemporaries saw echoes of Saturnalia: as in Rome, an endless row of open carts stretched around the city, crowded with revelers in masks and without masks, as in Rome, spectators stared at the jubilant, raging carnival crowd from all windows .. It is also believed that the custom of decorating houses and streets for holidays with garlands of flowers and leaves is also from Roman times.
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But the roots of the daring, intoxicating Rhine carnival are much deeper - in the pagan customs of the Franks of the Germanic tribes who inhabited this land from the end of the 4th century. 13 According to the established point of view, the origins of the Cologne carnival (since the 12th century known as Fastabend), as well as the South German "fasnet", are in ancient rituals for the expulsion of winter and fertility rituals, in which Roman, Celtic and Germanic customs intertwined. Ancient customs - the cult of the deities of ancient Germanic mythology Isis and Nerthus, dressing up as bears, deer, goats and other animals associated with the ritual of fertility - were preserved in the Rhine villages until the 8th-9th centuries, while in Cologne the influence of the church was much stronger, and therefore traces of ancient cult rites are hardly readable here. Nevertheless, the mask (ritual-lema) of the bear is still preserved in the Cologne carnival, having almost lost the original meaning of the demon of fertility.
The struggle between paganism and Christianity is evidenced by the numerous prohibitions of ancient customs by the synod and city authorities. Pope Gregory II, at the request of the King of the Franks Karlman (Karlmann, ruled from 768 to 771), back in 742 issued a list of obscene pagan customs and superstitions. The abbot of the Benedictine monastery, Regino von Prüm, in his 900 sermons, strictly forbade the monks from watching "vile entertainment scenes" with a bear and indulging in such diabolical activities as wearing demonic masks. The influence of the church was significantly strengthened under Charlemagne (742-814), when the residence of the archbishop was transferred to Cologne, and under Archbishop Bruno (mid-10th century), under whom it became almost impossible to reveal one's sympathies for paganism. The sermons of this time forbade the February rite of expelling winter as pagan. The ancient rites were preserved largely thanks to the cunning of the stubborn pagan-baptizers, who managed to introduce pagan customs into Shrovetide holidays.
However, in the 10th century, during the time of Archbishop Bruno, the stubborn resistance of the church to pagan devilry was replaced by the gradual installation of carnival in the church calendar year and more flexible control over ineradicable pagan addictions. From century to century, carnival bans by the city authorities are repeated. So, in 1403, any "disguise in the days of fastnacht" was forbidden under the threat of traffic in five Cologne marks. However, from the second half of the XII century. the word "vastavent", "fastabend" is perceived naturally, in close connection with the subsequent post.
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The duration of the carnival at first was not the same for everyone. Monks and clergy, under the Greek-Byzantine influence, began to fast already on cheese days - the last Sunday before Great Lent (Sonntag Quinquagesima), while the profane - only on Quatecost - the first Sunday of Lent (Sonntag Quadragesima). From the 10th century the carnival began to begin for everyone on the same day - on Ash Wednesday, but the division into master's, priestly and old carnivals remained.
Many historians consider the behavior of church dignitaries of the Middle Ages to be evidence of double morality, on the one hand, anathematizing demonic games, on the other hand, happily indulging in carnival entertainment at the permitted time. The Archbishop of Cologne Ferdinand issued in 1644 a special instruction regulating church carnival practice. Special attention there was devoted to the "feast of the subdeacons", popularly known as the "jester's carnival" (Narrenfest), whose homeland is considered to be France.
According to the canon, at first the buffoon's pope, or the buffoon's bishop, was elected. Then the lower rank, sitting on a donkey, escorted him to the church, where a song of praise sounded and worship was performed in the old manner. The jester's ceremony was accompanied by dancing and feasting. No less famous is the "donkey holiday". A luxuriously dressed young girl with a child in her arms was put on a donkey (a hint of Mary's flight from Egypt). Then the procession, accompanied by the clergy, went to the church, where a jester's liturgy took place, at which those standing around the donkey instead of "amen" bleated like a donkey.
The subdeacons of the Cologne Cathedral, together with the priests of the nearby cathedrals, also allowed themselves to fool around on Epiphany holidays. In 1645, the jester's king was even allowed to celebrate mass in the presence of the capitulprelates, Te Deum was sung by candlelight, as well as baptismal hymns and merry hymns. Monasteries and church shelters did not stand aside. This is how a young Cologne nun described the local carnival in her letter: carnival clothes very funny. But of course
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Of course, this only happens outside the monastery walls... We experienced the carnival with all our passion... We danced and jumped all day long. At night, when the abbess had gone to bed, we drank tea, coffee, and chocolate, and played cards and checkers." 14 Often the nuns amused themselves like secular simpletons, tearing off each other's hats or jester's caps.
The masquerades and processions of the religious brotherhoods were distinguished by a special invention, burlesque and unbridledness. The Cologne diocesan synod testified in 1662: “The secular frivolity of stupid people has crept very far, even whole buffoon performances are staged with great noise, they beat the timpani, as if calling for a fight, amusing spectacles are shown for the public’s needs; women dress up as men; laughter, jokes, loud talk." The Cologne city council, wanting to support the indignant church fathers, strictly forbade clerics to wear masks.
Religious masquerades in the bosom of the church had a huge number of supporters, as evidenced by the text of the 15th century that has come down to us, which can be called a kind of manifesto of buffoonery: "Our ancestors were great and respectable men. They established the buffoon carnival according to wise understanding. Let's live like them and do what they did. We celebrate the jester's carnival to please ourselves, so that the buffoonery that we inherited may find an outlet at least once a year. Wine barrels will burst if they are not released from time to time air. We are all old casks, not so skillfully casked, and from which the wine of wisdom would vanish if we let it go on roaming, because of untiring attention in the service of the Lord. .." 15
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In the history of the burgher Cologne carnival, a huge role was played by guilds which flourished in the 12th century. As in many other cities, the care of carnival rites passed into the hands of apprentices. The first mention of the celebration of the carnival in Cologne on the pages of the city sworn book is dated March 5, 1341 (a short record forbids from now on issuing money for the carnival from the city treasury; this ban was repeated in 1272, 1395 and 1396). Starting from the 14th century, the premises of the guilds, along with the large state houses of the patricians, became places for organizing carnivals with obligatory feasts and round dances.
The Cologne fastnacht of these times is inextricably linked with the carnival tribute collectors (Heischegangen) walking around the city. The custom of stopping people on the street and forcing them to pay off with money (Krongeld - money for carnival wreaths) persisted until the beginning of the 15th century, until it acquired an ugly character and was banned (the ban, however, did not last long).
It is noteworthy that the carnival in medieval Cologne, which had a democratic constitution since 1396, did not abolish class division; clergy, patricians and artisans celebrated it separately. During the carnival, the patricians opened the doors of their houses to relatives and friends, the banquets culminating between two and four in the morning. The Chronicle of Count von Zimmern tells of one such feast in 1536 at the house of the mayor of Cologne, Wasserfras, giving details of costumes, food and drink.
The diary of Hermann von Weinsberg, who was one of the members of the city council, contains information about the carnival in burgher families, where it was customary to arrange mutual visits with funny pranks in masks 16 . In 1750, shops appeared in Cologne where you could rent masks.
The "offensive of freedom" was publicly proclaimed by the city fathers from the balcony of the town hall. A description of what happened after this proclamation has been preserved: “And then there was a crazy revival in all the streets, in all the Houses, which lasted three days. Trade of all kinds was suspended, time belonged to only one crazy passion. to indulge in buffoonery together
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Fun, or went out into the streets and played merry scenes in this or that house, in a tavern or inn, open day and night, or simply on the streets, crowded with joyful and jubilant townspeople, and all this either in mockery, or for the sake of a cheerful, pleasant pastime and fun. All the nights in a row there were balls, at which the masks continued friendly, playful, but often far from harmless fun, moving from dances to general practical jokes.
The organizers of the open, public, folk carnival were guilds that gathered apprentices into the so-called cliques (Banden). With deafening drumbeats and whistles, they marched through the city, playing skits, saying "spruhi" and whole speeches, leading round dances and dancing. Unfortunately, no documents have been preserved from which one could learn something about the content and political meaning of oral speeches, which certainly touched the mighty of the world this and expressing the opinion of the street.
Rooted in antiquity, a graceful but very dangerous sword dance was usually assigned to the guild of blacksmiths. Researchers point to the cult origin of this dance, mentioned by Tacitus and personifying the struggle between good and evil demons, between summer and winter 18 . The dancers were usually dressed in white shirts, with bells hanging on their legs and on their bodies. The following description, dated 1590, has been preserved in the archives of the guild: "Each dancer turned around himself, at the same time walking in a circle and defending himself from the swords of other dancers threatening him. Less dangerous, but perhaps even more skillful, was the hoop dance performed by young men "coopers. There were also graceful jumps and flips through the hoop. Some dancers danced on a rolling barrel, others swung the hoop during the dance, into which still others jumped" 19.
The Cologne carnival was considered the most mischievous in Germany. To this day, they say that a Cologne would sooner lay his bed in a pawnshop than refuse to participate in the carnival. The custom of "stopping and catching", in every way teasing fellow citizens on the street, thereby inducing them to participate in the carnival, persisted until the 19th century. Nowhere have young cliques and students under cover of masks hunted girls so wildly and so furiously. The pleasure of the girls was to allow themselves to be hunted and caught. The ban of 1431 picturesquely characterizes the wild freemen of the Cologne carnival: "Even on Ash Wednesday, men and women dressed up in carnival costumes without any measure, which unusually embarrassed our fellow citizens, as it happened more than once in other times. In order to prevent the friction that occurs for this reason, the members of the city council decided that none of any guilds, administrations and any other societies had the right to participate in the carnival that day, that in the squares and in the villages only on Monday, after after Sunday, Estomini, an honest community of citizens, games are allowed, but on the condition that at six o'clock everyone would already be sitting in their homes, and night feasts and nightly drunkenness, sword dances and various disguises both in the squares and in the villages, together with food beyond all measure, libations, dances and all other light thoughts must be completely and completely abolished" 20.
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The old market has also witnessed a lot of rather rough and wild entertainment. One of such scenes of the carnival of 1498 is described by the Kölhoff Chronicle. Five blind men, absurdly dressed, in heavy armor and with heavy clubs, were thrown into the bars, in which a tied pig rushed about, which the blind had to finish off. The blind beat each other most often. The audience reacted accordingly 21 .
XV-XVI centuries in Cologne - the era of carefree carnival fun of the people, interrupted for a long time by the counter-reformation of the Catholic Church, which was subject to the Jesuits, who were extremely hostile to the carnival, as well as the advent of wars - the Cologne War of 1583 and the Thirty Years War. The students of the Jesuit college were obliged to spend hours in prayer during the carnival. The Jesuits more than once (1600, 1645) staged penitential processions and performances, calling the carnival audience possessed by the devil to asceticism and piety.
The peace of Rashtat in 1714 once again returned its freedom to the carnival.
The baroque and rococo times, thanks to the flourishing of the court style, and partly to the powerful influence of Italy, enriched the Cologne fastnacht with new elements and forms. The people of Cologne took pleasure in comparing themselves with the Romans and the Venetians. Since 1730, a new, "noble" form of carnival entertainment for the court nobility appeared - masquerade balls (Redoute), following the example of noisy masquerades at the court of the Elector of Bonn. In the city chronicles, "fastnacht" began to be called "Carneval".
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The functions of the organizers of the masquerade were so significant that Cologne historians are inclined to call them directors 22 . Even their names have been preserved - for example, the organizer of one of the first was a certain Mr. Ferrari, and his follower was Josef El, who worked on the Dome Square. However, can they really be considered the forerunners of directing? In order to streamline the fun and avoid fights with swords, which were constant companions of the Cologne carnivals and more than once led to deaths, the city council introduced at the end of 1782 the "Regulations on night masquerades." All participants in the masquerade had to be masked, but swords and canes (in which swords could be hidden) were prohibited. "Whoever, under the cover of a mask, dares to say rudeness to another or begins to find fault with him, should be removed from the ball, regardless of personality."
The elector's court near Epiphany organized its own carnival, according to the court ceremonial, where canons dressed in carnival costumes, knights of various orders, and the monastic nobility flocked. The masquerade lasted until the morning, his magnificent costumes were the complete opposite of the rough burgher fasteleur. Excited guests indulged in coffee and cocoa - at that time rare and sometimes forbidden drinks. In winter, masquerade sleigh rides were organized between Cologne and Bonn.
The tradition of plying carriages with jesters goes back to antiquity; down to pagan customs. City chronicles brought to us a lot of information on this subject. In 1133 Cologne weavers were dragging a wagon with jesters around the city. In 1235, Isabella of England, the future wife of Emperor Frederick II, who arrived in Cologne, was honored by a wagon with 22 jester monks who made faces and performed other pranks. During the carnival of 1679, famous for its snowy winter, the Cologne townsfolk used sledges instead of wagons for jesters 23 . The wagon of jesters on the last Monday of Maslenitsa (Rosenmontag), which became customary in later times, certainly inherited this ancient tradition. This is one of the persistent rituals of the German carnival in general.
The usual street Carneval of this time was opened - after a solemn mass - by children. The procession of grotesque satirical characters that followed was often supplemented by the performance of scenes. The main event played out over the next three days. According to the established route (named, in imitation of the Italians, Corso) - from the Old Market to High Street, through the Hay Market, Maltsmühle, Mühlenbach, High Gates - a procession moved: apprentices, all kinds of cliques, students, on foot, on horses and wagons. A cheerful, not always harmless dialogue began between the audience, leaning out of the open windows and standing along the streets, and the comedians. As in the old days, they threw peas at each other, according to the Roman custom, they threw confetti, which were tiny plaster dragees. Like the Romans, on Tuesday evening they went out into the street with burning lamps. This procession also turned into fun game: Everyone tried to put out the fire in each other's hands.
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It is noteworthy that the custom of burying Shrovetide came to Cologne quite late - in the 17th century, being borrowed from a rural fair.
The history of the carnival goes back to ancient times - the ancient Roman Saturnalia is considered to be its ancestors - the time when the holiday erased strict differences between classes, dragging everyone into the abyss of enjoying life. It was then that the tradition appeared to hide their faces under masks so that people could behave as they wanted, leaving for a while the norms of public morality. According to one version, the very name of the holiday came from there - from the Latin carrus-navalis, "chariot-ship". However, the majority is of the opinion that the word “carnival” came from a combination of the words “carne-vale”, which can literally be translated as “goodbye meat”, because later the holiday began to be held seven weeks before Easter (mid-February - early March), to give the opportunity to relish fun before Lent. Each country has its own traditions for this time, but everyone is invariably united by the spirit of joy and noisy freedom.
Venice - the city of masks
The most famous carnival in Europe takes place in Venice. This holiday reached its peak during the Renaissance. Ten days before Great Lent were devoted to unbridled joy and freedom of morals - not to commit the fall at this time is considered bad form by the Venetians. Masks and carnival costumes hid their owners and allowed them to behave as they pleased. The carnival traditionally begins with the descent of an angel - an acrobat descends on a rope from the bell tower to Piazza San Marco and scatters confetti. Then the “Parade of Marys” is held - out of twelve young Venetians, the very best is chosen. Traditional costumes and masks are almost an obligatory attribute of the holiday. But if on the street you can still do without it, then it is impossible to get to the balls, which are held in abundance at this time, “in civilian clothes”. The most popular costumes are commedia dell'arte characters, although there are no strict canons here. Everyone chooses what he likes. The cost of a suit can be the most unpredictable - sometimes it is in the thousands of euros. However, everyone is allowed to the holiday, regardless of the complexity of the costume. Recently, the Venetian carnival has been devoted to a chosen theme - for example, it can be the East (2004) or "999 years of carnivals and holidays in Venice" (1999). The holiday ends with the traditional burning of an effigy and general dancing in Piazza San Marco, where it all begins.
Rio is the king of carnival
Carnival is a European tradition, but for many years the Brazilian Rio de Janeiro has held the well-deserved palm. The holiday was brought in the 17th century by Portuguese settlers, but pretty soon it became a public property and acquired a Latin American flavor, in which European, African and Indian traditions were intricately mixed. The festivities were of a very large scale, people sang, danced, throwing all sorts of things at each other - eggs, plaster balls, beans and bags of water and other liquids. A new page in the history of the carnival began in the 20th century, when the first samba was written in 1917, which gave its name to the incendiary dance of the same name. Now the parade of samba schools is the central event of the holiday, taking place along a 700-meter long street specially built for this purpose - the samba drome. Only fourteen schools that have achieved a place in the Major League can take part in it. The holiday lasts four days and begins with the symbolic handing over of the keys to the carnival king Momo, who is chosen among the fattest residents of the city. Preparations for the holiday begin long before the appointed date (it depends on the day of Easter), and no reason can force Brazilians to save on costumes and decorations. However, everyone has the same goal - to make the strongest possible impression on the audience and the jury. Competitions between schools last two nights, and only the most enduring can withstand them - this applies to both the participants in the procession and the spectators. Whimsical and flamboyant costumes are a must, although in hot climates minimal clothing and maximum glitter are preferred. The local carnival is considered the brightest and sparkling.
To the Canaries!
Tenerife is the largest island of the Canarian archipelago. It is here that the second largest carnival festival after the Brazilian takes place. He came here with the Spaniards and is still celebrated with pleasure. In 1997, the local carnival was listed in the Guinness Book of Records - at the same time, 240,000 people danced all night on the streets of the capital Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
It all starts with the election of Carnival Queen and Junior Carnival Queen, and over the next ten days, life on the street turns into an endless competition between dancers, musicians and various carnival groups. And to remain an outside observer is almost impossible! The highlight is a parade called "Coso" that starts on Tuesday afternoon. It all ends with the comical "funeral of the sardine" - under the lamentations of inconsolable mourners (in whose birth mustachioed men usually act), a huge papier-mâché fish is set on fire. And then traditionally comes the first day of fasting.
in colonial style
The North American continent is famous for the carnival in New Orleans. The holiday has French roots and combines sophistication and frivolity. It is called the same as in Paris - Mardi Gras ("Fat Tuesday"). The “warm-up” before the big celebration begins on January 6 and gradually comes to a climax, falling on all the same two weeks before Great Lent. The most colorful event is the Bacchus Parade. Beads and aluminum medallions are thrown from the motorcades, which are very popular with spectators. Places for the parade are sometimes taken from the very early morning. The parade in the French Quarter is considered the most scandalous episode. Here, the object of prey for the audience are plastic beads and coconuts. In order to attract the attention of the thrower, women boldly expose their breasts or lift up their T-shirts. However, in any other quarter, you can get into the police for this, despite the carnival. Restaurants are the biggest beneficiaries of this time - New Orleans is famous for its cuisine, highly revered by gourmets.
fifth season
Solid Germans singled out the "fifth season" for the carnival. It officially starts on November 11 at 11.11 am (this month the Holiday Committee for the organization of the carnival begins its work, and the action itself takes place, as expected, a week before Lent). This set of numbers is explained by the fact that eleven is considered the number of a fool, and therefore, it is very suitable for fun. Cologne and Düsseldorf have long been fighting for the status of the German carnival capital. Both cities have a whole range of holiday traditions and every year in the seven weeks before Easter they try to outdo each other. Opens the holiday "Baby Thursday" - on this day, women take the town hall by storm and become mistresses of the city. The next two days pass relatively peacefully - for gatherings and beer, but on Saturday the Parade of Spirits takes place - anyone can dress up as a spirit or a ghost and take part in it. Sunday is children's day - everything is done only for them. On Monday, at the obligatory 11.11. the climax of the holiday comes - a big parade, the main characters of which are the unchanging Prince, the Maiden and the Peasant. It is important for the viewer to take a "brisk" place - during the procession, all sorts of sweets fly into the crowd. The holiday ends on Tuesday with the burning of a traditional effigy, so that by the first Wednesday of Lent, life will return to normal.
Leisurely Switzerland
Switzerland is the only country where the carnival starts later than everyone else - on the first week of Lent. The carnival lasts exactly three days, from 4:00 Monday to 4:00 Thursday. And basically it is not much different from the holiday of the neighbors. There is the main parade, there are traveling orchestras performing in the streets and in pubs, there is a lot of confetti. Unless the “clicks” are worthy of attention - special carnival gangs that play a major role in the celebration and when they meet each other on a night street, they begin to compete who can make the old march stronger (the ability to play the flute or drum is mandatory for each member of the gang). But, as elsewhere, the carnival here is an occasion for fun in anticipation of the coming spring. And that means the beginning of a new, and necessarily happy, page in life.
in the lower mythology of European culture, an anthropomorphic embodiment of the calendar holiday of seeing off winter. The carnival expresses the mythological consciousness and cult actions of the level of pagan culture. The beginning of the year coincided in this calendar with the spring rebirth of nature. This cycle was included in the later - Christian - carnival was held 40 days before the Easter holiday. In Russian tradition, it coincides with Shrovetide. The origin of the name is associated with the ancient tradition of using a cult wagon - "chariot - ship". The essence of the carnival is to take the effigy of Winter on this wagon outside the settlement and burn it. In the Italian folk tradition, the carnival is associated with the celebration of life: - "Long live the flesh!". In the Middle Ages, the carnival was celebrated very widely, with the election of the King of the Jesters, discarding many cultural "strictness". Often carnival culture is compared to the "golden age" of equality. Currently, the most magnificent carnival is celebrated in the Catholic countries of Latin America.
Great Definition
Incomplete definition ↓
CARNIVAL
a cultural and mass behavioral phenomenon based on the corresponding "type of imagery" (MM Bakhtin). He acted as a significant component of medieval and renaissance folk culture. Used in modern philosophy of culture. A multidimensional analysis of k. in a cultural context was first carried out in the book by M. M. Bakhtin "The Creativity of Francois Rabelais and the Folk Culture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance" (the first version of the manuscript was completed in 1940; first edition - Moscow, 1965; translated into many languages) Abandoning the traditionalist descriptions of the social background of the Renaissance and considering the advanced views of Rabelais the humanist, Bakhtin focused on the study of the ancient and especially medieval origins of Rabelais's novel Gargantua and Pantagruel. M.P. Alekseev, "folklore tradition of the Middle Ages") a number of features of the work under study, which have long seemed very strange to researchers. the influence on Rabelais of the areal laughter culture of the Middle Ages, which arose in a much earlier period, but reached its full flowering by the 16th century. According to Bakhtin, not only Rabelais, but also G. Boccaccio, W. Shakespeare, M. Cervantes were subject to the charm of the life-affirming and bright atmosphere characteristic of K. and other folk holidays of that time. Carnival culture had a well-developed system of ritual-spectacular and genre forms, as well as a very deep philosophy of life, the main features of which Bakhtin considered universality, ambivalence (i.e. - in this case - the perception of being in constant change, eternal movement from death to birth , from old to new, from denial to affirmation), informality, utopianism, fearlessness. Among the ritual and spectacular forms of medieval folk culture, Bakhtin named carnival-type festivities and accompanying them (as well as ordinary civil ceremonies and rituals) comic performances: "feast of fools", "feast of the donkey", "temple holidays", etc. Folk culture was also embodied in various verbal comic works in Latin and folk languages. These works, both oral and written, parodied and ridiculed literally all aspects of medieval life, including church rituals and religious doctrine ("Cyprian's Vespers", numerous parody sermons, liturgies, prayers, psalms, etc. ). The cheerful freemen of the carnival festival gave rise to various forms and genres of unofficial, and most often obscene, familiar-public speech, largely consisting of curses, oaths and swearing. On the carnival square, the exclamations of farce touts always sounded insistently, which - together with other "genres" of street advertising ("the cries of Paris", the cries of miracle cure sellers and fair doctors) - were played up and parodied, becoming an important element of folk laughter culture. According to Bakhtin, Rabelais combined all these forms, genres and motifs in the novel "Gargantua and Pantagruel", preserving them for posterity and thus creating a kind of "encyclopedia" of medieval laughter. Moreover, from Bakhtin's point of view, reliance on comic folk culture not only did not contradict Rabelais's humanistic ideals, but, on the contrary, harmoniously combined with them and even helped their propaganda, since "the carnival worldview is the deep foundation of Renaissance literature." As Bakhtin notes in The Creativity of François Rabelais and the Folk Culture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, “no matter how dispersed, separated and isolated individual “private” bodies and things, the realism of the Renaissance does not cut off the umbilical cord that connects them with the generative body of the earth and the people". For example, the "rehabilitation of the flesh", characteristic of humanism, is correlated and akin to the "grotesque concept of the body", with the predominance of the "material and bodily beginning of life" inherent in folk culture. Laughter folk culture, being ancient, archaic in its origins , nevertheless anticipated some fundamental philosophical concepts that are specific to the New Age.According to L.E. Pinsky, "during the Renaissance, the indestructible hierarchical vertical of the medieval official idea of the cosmos (the "Great Chain of Being") was replaced by a historical horizontal: movement in time . In the grotesque conception of the body, which is experiencing the formation in folk-festive games, the subject of which was the cheerful passage of time, a new historical sense of life and an idea of the progress of mankind was born. "Compare in the text of Bakhtin's book:" change and with their ambivalence become the main means of artistic and ideological expression of that powerful sense of history and historical change, which awakened with exceptional force in the Renaissance. "That is why it is impossible to understand Rabelais and Renaissance literature in general without taking into account their connection with folk culture of laughter. Medieval laughter is interpreted in Bakhtin's book as having a "universal and worldview character, as a special and, moreover, a positive point of view on the world, as a special aspect of the world as a whole and any of its phenomena." K. (Bakhtin attached an expanded meaning to this term, understanding by it “not only the forms of carnival in the narrow and precise sense, but also the entire rich and varied folk and festive life of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance”) contrasted the serious, high culture of the Middle Ages with “a completely different, emphatically unofficial, extra-church and extra-state aspect of the world, man and human relations.
K. was not just played out, it was "as it were, a real ... form of life itself", which people of the Middle Ages lived during the holidays - moreover, "another free (free)", "ideal" form. If official holidays affirmed the stability, immutability and eternity of the existing world order, sanctified the triumph of the already victorious, dominant, indisputable "truth", then K. "was, as it were, a temporary suspension of the operation of the entire official system with all its prohibitions and hierarchical barriers": at this time, life for a short time she left her usual rut and entered "the sphere of utopian freedom." This freedom was legalized: both the state and the church tolerated it, even each official holiday had its second, folk-carnival, square side. The celebratory crowd perceived life through the prism of "merry relativity"; , parodied everything that was worshiped on ordinary days, indulged in various physiological excesses, neglecting the norms of decency: "The theme of the birth of a new renewal was organically combined with the theme of the death of the old in a cheerful and degrading way, with images of a clownish carnival debunking." In the grotesque imagery of K., the moment of temporal change was emphasized in every possible way (seasons, solar and lunar phases, death and renewal of vegetation, change of agricultural cycles): "this moment acquired a broader and deeper meaning: the people's aspirations for a better future, more just socio-economic structure, new truth". The abundance of banquet images, hyperbolic physicality, symbolism of fertility, powerful productive forces, etc. emphasized the immortality of the people: "On the whole, the world and the people have no place for fear; fear can penetrate only into a part that has separated from the whole, only into a dying link, taken apart from the one that is being born. The whole of the people and the world is triumphantly cheerful and fearless." From an aesthetic point of view, carnival culture is a special concept of being and a special type of imagery, which, according to Bakhtin, "is based on a special idea of the bodily whole and the boundaries of this whole." Bakhtin defines this representation as a grotesque conception of the body, which is characterized by what seems monstrous and ugly from the point of view of "classical" aesthetics ("aesthetics of finished, completed being"). If the classical images are individualized, separated from each other, as if cleared "of all the slag of birth and development", then the grotesque images, on the contrary, show life "in its ambivalent, internally contradictory process", are concentrated around moments denoting the connection between different bodies, dynamics, temporary change (copulation, pregnancy, childbirth, the act of bodily growth, old age, disintegration of the body, etc.). "Unlike the canons of modern times, the grotesque body is not delimited from the rest of the world, is not closed, not completed, not ready, outgrows itself, goes beyond its limits. Accents lie on those parts of the body where it is either open to the outside world, that is where the world enters the body or sticks out of it, or it itself sticks out into the world, that is, on holes, on bulges, on all sorts of branches and processes: a gaping mouth, a reproductive organ, breasts, a phallus, a fat belly, a nose" (Bakhtin). This type of imagery, characteristic of folk laughter culture, is due to the people's belief in their immortality: "... in a grotesque body, death does not essentially end anything, because death does not touch the generic body, it, on the contrary, renews it in new generations." The concept of K., put forward in Bakhtin's book on Rabelais, caused heated debates during its appearance and publication, and is still far from generally recognized. However, it played an important role in the development and stimulation of cultural studies, in expanding the horizons of scientific thought. At present, the interpretation of the concept of K. continues, and it is possible both the appearance of its original interpretations and its fruitful use for studying various world cultures. The multidimensional studies of carnival culture carried out by Bakhtin contributed, in particular, to the legitimization of such a cultural phenomenon as "Rabelaisianism". Rabelaisianism was interpreted as connected not so much directly with the work of F. Rabelais, but with the tradition of his philosophical interpretation, within which the cultural space is built in the context of semiotically articulated corporality, understood as a semantically significant phenomenon (text), the reading of which generates the effect of the grotesque, which and gives the cultural space the status of carnival (see Body, Corporeality, Text, Bakhtin M.M.).
Introduction
The manifestation of all forms and types of culture of any group, starting from the accepted forms of behavior, ending with the demonstration of outfits and the performance of traditional rituals, goes through a holiday. At this stage of socio-cultural development, when organizing mass holidays, the use of carnival as a form of festive culture has become widespread. Close attention to the carnival is due to the fact that it is such a form of celebration, within which the continuity of original traditions is carried out. individual peoples and a full-fledged dialogue of cultures of different countries and regions, which is especially relevant today. Particular attention to carnival-type holidays is also due to the fact that they act as an effective and accessible form of development of the creatosphere of modern society, since they contain a wide range of opportunities for realizing the creative potential of the largest possible number of participants.
What is carnival
Karnavaml is a holiday associated with dressing up, masquerade and colorful processions, celebrated before Lent. It is similar to the East Slavic Maslenitsa or Myasopust among the Catholic Slavs. It is distributed mainly in Catholic countries. It is accompanied by mass folk festivals with street processions and theatrical performances.
The carnival appeared in the 9th-10th centuries. The earliest references to periodic city festivals in various cities of Western Europe date back to this time. The first carnivals appeared in Italy - the Venice Carnival, where large independent cities appeared first of all. Then carnivals appeared in France, and later in Germany: Mainz, Düsseldorf and Cologne.
The origin of the carnival is not fully understood, and the etymology of the word itself is unclear. Most researchers believe that the ancient pra-carnival fell on the change of seasons and was an agrarian holiday. The European carnival itself arose from the fusion of Roman and Germanic customs. Gradually, the carnival turned into a traditional celebration of the meeting of spring, which everywhere in Europe began to precede the main annual fast - a period of repentance and starvation.
It is believed that the word "carnival" comes from the cult cart-ship on wheels (Latin carrus-navalis - "chariot-ship", used, in particular, during the ancient mysteries of Marduk, Dionysus, etc., in the rituals of the peoples of Europe from bronze century); in the Middle Ages and later, an effigy of Carnival was taken out on a chariot during festive processions.
There is, however, another version: the Italian word "carnevale" - "carnival" comes from the Latin words "carne" and "vale" - "goodbye, meat."
In Slavic mythology, Maslenitsa corresponds to the image of Carnival.
carnival culture holiday mythology
