By Sally Mayo/Cultour

Carnival conjures up images as diverse as scantily clad beauty queens in bikinis dancing in the streets in Rio to elaborately disguised characters gracing the canals and piazzas of Venice in traditional masks and costumes. Intrigue and mystique are never missing, nor is the atmosphere of festivity and celebration, but what is Carnival really all about and when and how did the tradition begin?

Carnival in the Puglia city of Putignano is claimed to be the oldest in Italy, predating even the famous celebrations which are staged in Venice each year. Legend has it that the tradition in Putignano started as far back as 1394. The Knights of Malta, who were engaged in the local defense against Saracen attacks, at the time very common to the coastal cities in the area, decided that the Holy Relics of St. Stephen the Martyr should be moved for safekeeping from the castle in Monopoli to Putignano. The story goes that the local farmers, who were at the time working in their vineyards (that period being the time for the winter pruning of the vines), overjoyed at the arrival of the holy relics in their town, left the fields and ran to meet the cortege with faces dusted white with flour, joking, laughing and singing. The character which represents Carnival in Putignano is called Farinella and is said to be rooted in this tradition. The historical event is also commemorated each year on the very day on which the relics are said to have arrived in Putignano, the 26th of December or St. Stephen’s Day. Referred to as the Propaggini, poems are recited in the local dialect to the high esteem of the community. This day officially marks the start of Carnival season in Putignano.

Integrally linked to religious tradition, Carnival essentially observes the period before the start of Lent. Another key date on the Carnival calendar is February 2, the celebration of Candlemas or the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin. This is traditionally linked with the day upon which Mary is said to have presented her newborn son at the temple after the obligatory period of retreat and purification after the birth. In Putignano it is also known as the Festival of the Bear, an association which may look to reconcile a pre-Christian tradition with an important Christian event. According to a proverb in the local dialect, on the day of Candlemas the bear is endowed with powers to foresee the weather conditions for the remainder of the winter. The day is marked with theatrical performances representing the bear and its magical powers.

Thursdays are important days in the countdown to Shrove Tuesday, the climax of the several weeks of festivities and which also marks the end of Carnival. Thursdays are traditional days for dances and parties, each week elevating different strata of the social hierarchy into prominence. The first Thursday is dedicated to the Archbishop, followed in order by priests, nuns, widowers, “Pazzi” (anyone still unmarried), married women and, finally, married men.

Sundays in the final three weeks of Carnival see the rollout of the Carnival Parade. Each week, the cavalcade makes its way through the main streets of the town. Colorful and elaborate papier-mâché floats snake through the streets with hundreds of participants and observers. The floats often make fun of politicians and other public figures and more recently have been used to promote public awareness of important local and global issues. The float-making tradition has also led to the development of considerable local talent in the techniques of papier-mâché.

The final parade is held on the eve of Ash Wednesday, as per the Mardi Gras tradition in Rio and other cities around the world. Christians let their hair down and indulge on “Fat Tuesday,” the final day before the fasting and reflection of Lent begins. Once the last of the official floats have completed their tour of the city’s streets, the final hours of Shrove Tuesday are ushered out by a funeral procession by masked “priests” and a papier-mâché pig which is burned in the main piazza. The last minutes of the occasion are sounded out by 365 chimes of the Campana dei Maccheroni, a papier-mâché bell which signals the end of Carnival and the commencement of the austere and somber period of Lent. The town and all its visitors are gathered together for the last of the important winter festivals with wine, pasta and dancing. When the period of Lent is over and the Holy Week begins, the locals are already looking forward to the arrival of spring, longer days, warmer weather and renewed life.

Although the Carnival of Putignano is by far and away the oldest and best known in the region, similar parades take place on Shrove Tuesday in towns throughout the region. Among the most notable are those in Gallipoli, Manfredonia and Massafra.

For more information about Carnival celebrations in Putignano, there is an official website which contains a small section in English. The site is particularly useful for checking Carnival dates as from year to year these vary: www.carnevalediputignano.it.

To find out more about some of the other important festivals celebrated in Puglia, and for photos of last year’s Carnival Parade in Putignano, see the events page of Cultour’s website: http://www.cultournet.it/english/events.html.

The next important events on the local calendar in Puglia are the Holy Week processions of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Saturday. Keep checking Puglia Connection in the lead up to Easter for an article about the moving and heartfelt observations of Holy Week in Gallipoli.

Photo copyright © Sally Mayo/Cultour