A benefit of membership with the New Orleans Museum of Art
ARTSQUARTERLY VOLUME XXVIII ISSUE 2
¡CARNAVAL! BY BARBARA MAULDIN, PhD Curator of the ¡CARNAVAL! Exhibition, Curator of Latin American Collections, Museum of International Folk Art
NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006
C
arnival, Carnaval, Carnevale—What is the origin of these words and the rowdy festivals associated with them? The earliest mention of a Carnival celebration is recorded in a twelfth-century Roman account of the pope and upper-class Roman citizens watching a parade through the city, followed by the killing of steers and other animals. The purpose was to play and eat meat before Ash Wednesday, which marked the beginning of Catholic Lent—the forty-day fast leading up to Easter. The Latin term carnem-levare—to remove oneself from flesh or meat—was used to refer to the festival. The pre-Lenten celebration grew in popularity over the next few centuries, spreading to other European cities and rural communities. Italians eventually shortened the name to Carnevale—flesh farewell— and the word was translated into Spanish and Portuguese as Carnaval, into English as Carnival, and into German as Karneval. Other terms also are used for the festival such as the English—Shrove Tide (fasting time), the German— Fasching (fasting), the SwissGerman—Fasnacht (night before fasting), and the French—Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday). All of these names allude to the feast before the fast, and many sixteenth- and seventeenth-century celebrations included a mock battle between Carnival and Lent, which symbolized this transition. Carnival continued to evolve in Europe throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, while colonists from Spain, Portugal, and France carried this festival tradition into North and South America. The political and industrial revolutions of the nineteenth century had a significant effect on Carnival celebrations on all three continents. As the festivities began to be viewed as civic events by newly formed governments, urban street
Fantasy Masqueraders, Venice, Italy, 2001 Photograph by David and Shirley Rowan
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