From Dunkirk to Nice, Mardi Gras is an occasion for public celebrations.
Masquerades, confetti battles and other parades of floats, from which herrings like flowers can be thrown to the crowd, are appropriate.
And this, well beyond our borders.
Borrowed in the 13th century from the Italian “carnevalo”, an alteration of the medieval Latin “carnelevare”, composed of “carne” (“meat”) and “levare” (“to take away”), a contracted form of the Latin “carnis levamen” ( "action of removing the flesh"), the "carnival" symbolizes the entry into Lent.
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Drawing its origins from the Latin “quadragesima” (“the fortieth day before Easter”), Lent is the period of fasting and prayer which, since the 4th century in the Christian religion, commemorates the 40 days spent in the desert by Christ .
Tradition has it that the day before Ash Wednesday, the day that marks the beginning of the liturgical season, is the last opportunity to have a "fat" meal, until Easter.
Also, the event, known as Mardi Gras, is marked by a feast as well as a party where individuals parade through the streets, often disguised and masked.
Grotesque antics
In the same way as the Lupercalia, celebrating fertility, or the Parentalia, honoring the ancestors of the family, the carnival is originally a Roman pagan festival, called Calendes de mars, which celebrates the end of winter.
A party during which prohibitions were transgressed and disguises authorized.
It was in the independent municipalities of Italy that the carnival as we know it today was born.
In 1094, the festival is mentioned in a charter of the Doge Faliero in Venice, explains Gilles Bertrand in
History of the Carnival of Venice
(Pygmalion).
In 1269, the Senate imposed the eve of Lent as a day of celebration where the wearing of masks was encouraged.
Allowing anonymity and excesses, the authorities saw it as a way to strengthen civic spirit.
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Moment of fun where the social roles are reversed, the tradition is exported everywhere in Europe and, later, in America.
Henceforth, by extension, the “carnival” also designates a more or less grotesque buffoonery.
In 1942, in
La Vouivre
, Marcel Aymé wrote:
“With a stroke of her stick, she recalled Leopard to the duties of his charge, calling him an old goat, a great carnival and sick carrion.”
Thirteen years earlier, as we can read in the
Trésor de la langue française
, Paul Valéry had already written in
Variété II
:
“Everything that is social becomes carnivalesque.”