Italy-Cinderelle Stamp-1931-Carnival of Viareggio

The Carnival of Viareggio ( it, Carnevale di Viareggio) is a

carnival Carnival is a Catholic Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide (or Pre-Lent). Carnival t ...

event annually held in the Tuscan city of

Viareggio Viareggio () is a city and ''comune'' in northern Tuscany, Italy, on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. With a population of over 62,000, it is the second largest city within the province of Lucca, after Lucca. It is known as a seaside resort as ...

, in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. It is considered amongst the most renowned carnival celebrations in both Italy and Europe.

Overview

Its main characteristic is given by the parade of floats and masks, usually made of paper-pulp, depicting caricatures of popular people, such as politicians, showmen and sportsmen; the parade is held on the Viareggio avenue located alongside the local beach. Every year, the ''Carnevale di Viareggio'' attracts more than 500,000 spectators. Carnival celebrations are scheduled every weekend night in the city's different quarters or Rioni with the best known bars, restaurants, discos and hotels in Versilia hosting all-night colourful masked parties. Additionally, during the four-week celebration, plays in vernacular language are staged around the city. What makes the Carnevale di Viareggio one of a kind are its

papier-mâché upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti upright=1.3, Papier-mâché Catrinas, traditional figures for day of the dead celebrations in Mexico Papier-mâché (, ; , literally "chewed paper") is a composite material consisting of p ...

gargantuan allegorical floats with the largest ones towering 70 feet or 20 meters over the crowds and weighing about 40 tons. The Carnival Giant Float Parades take place along a 2 kilometre ring set aside Viareggio’s Liberty-era boardwalk, best known as ''La Passeggiata''.

History

The first Viareggio carnival parade was held in 1873, when some wealthy middle-class men decided to organize a parade of floats adorned with flowers; a number of local citizens, as a sign of protest, then decided to put on masks in order to show their refusal of high taxes they were forced to pay. The first float to win the parade, in 1883, was named ''I Quattro Mori'' (The Four Moors), an accurately representation of the homonymous

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...

statue. The official mascot of the Viareggio carnival is '' Burlamacco'', first depicted in 1931 by Uberto Bonetti. Since 2001, all the floats are built in an apposite seat, called ''Cittadella del Carnevale'' (Carnival Citadel), located on the northern side of the Viareggio city territory. The carnival had stopped during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and only resumed in 1921. It stopped again during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and was resumed in 1946 - from that point on, it grew in popularity. In 1925, for the very first time, local sculptor Antonio d'Arliano employed the paper mould technique on iron and wood scaffolding, thus changing forever the way the structure of Carnival floats would be made. Since then, the use of papier-mâché has become an integral element in the construction of these giant allegorical floats. In 2019, the Carnival parade gained international attention for a float depicting then-U.S. President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

dressed as the Emperor from ''

Warhammer 40,000 ''Warhammer 40,000'' is a miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop. It is the most popular miniature wargame in the world, and is particularly popular in the United Kingdom. The first edition of the rulebook was published in September 1987, ...

''. Many floats had satirized Trump,

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

and

Kim Jong-Un Kim Jong-un (; , ; born 8 January 1982) is a North Korean politician who has been Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is a son of Kim Jong-il, who was North Korea's sec ...

at previous parades.

The Cittadella

The impressive complex of the Cittadella del Carnevale di Viareggio was inaugurated in 2001 and is the largest and most important Italian thematic center dedicated to carnival floats and masks. It houses sixteen large hangars and workshops where the giant floats are built, a laboratory where the art of papier-mâché is taught, three museum areas and a historical photo and film archive and documentation center. At the Citadel of the Carnevale di Viareggio it is possible to visit the Papier Mâché Museum where the breathtaking floats are stored and the Museum of the Carnival that illustrates the over 100-year old history of the Carnevale through original documents, photographs, sketches, posters and models.

Mascot

Burlamacco is the

clown A clown is a person who performs comedy and arts in a state of open-mindedness using physical comedy, typically while wearing distinct makeup or costuming and reversing folkway-norms. History The most ancient clowns have been found in ...

-like figure which presides over the

in the Tuscan town of

, and is the town's mascot. Burlamacco was first depicted in 1931 by Uberto Bonetti; A competition had been held for the design of the mascot and his was the winning entry. He had chosen the red and

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

of the outfit from the traditional colours of the

umbrella An umbrella or parasol is a folding canopy supported by wooden or metal ribs that is usually mounted on a wooden, metal, or plastic pole. It is designed to protect a person against rain or sunlight. The term ''umbrella'' is traditionally use ...

s on the

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc s ...

at Viareggio and the name came 8 years later; it is derived from the Burlamacca river. To this day Burlamacco remains a feature of the carnival and there is a statue of him all the year round on the Lungomare in

. File:Carnival of Viareggio, Italy, 2019.jpg, Carnival of Viareggio, Italy, 2019 File:Carnival of Viareggio, 2019.jpg, Carnival of Viareggio, Italy, 2019

References

External links

*
Official website
{{Carnival around the world, state=autocollapse Viareggio

Tourist attractions in Tuscany