Discover the roots of the Italian carnival tradition, its many regional representations, cultural importance, strong connections with religion and history, and why it is still so popular today.
Join us for a fascinating journey through masks, costumes, parades, medieval jousting tournament re-enacted, and food. Travel with us from Venice and its world-renowned Carnevale and show-off in Piazza San Marco, and the Mestre Carnival Street Show, to the Cento Carnival, twinned with the Carnival in Rio de Janiero, with its historical pictorial accounts in the early 1600s frescos; from the Viareggio Carnival, dating back to 1873, with its parades of masked people and astonishing papier-mâché floats used as commentary of current affairs, to the Carnival in Fano, which it is said to be the oldest in Italy, dating back to 1347; from Putignano, 1394, its allegorical floats and its culinary carnival tradition, to the Sardinian carnival of Oristano and Mamoiada, with their heavy anthropomorphic wooden masks, the famous Mamuthones and Issohadores.
The event will be followed with games and activities focusing on the Italian Language for the Italian students of the Istituto, but also open to guests who would like to taste the playfulness and richness of the Italian language and culture.
Free admission
Presented by :
Maria Laura Mosco, PhD Italian Studies – Educator in Italian Studies
M. Laura Mosco (Laurea cum Laude, Università La Sapienza, Rome; MA/PhD, University of Toronto) is an Arts and Humanities Teaching Excellence Award winner, and has been teaching Italian culture and language from 2000. Laura has published on Italian contemporary literature, the concept of resistance in Italy, and the Italian cultural discourse and social media.