The Limassol Carnival () is an annual European

carnival Carnival (known as Shrovetide in certain localities) is a festive season that occurs at the close of the Christian pre-Lenten period, consisting of Quinquagesima or Shrove Sunday, Shrove Monday, and Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras. Carnival typi ...

event held in

Limassol Limassol, also known as Lemesos, is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and capital of the Limassol district. Limassol is the second-largest urban area in Cyprus after Nicosia, with an urban population of 195,139 and a district population o ...

, Cyprus. The main parade is held 12 days before the start of

Lent Lent (, 'Fortieth') is the solemn Christianity, Christian religious moveable feast#Lent, observance in the liturgical year in preparation for Easter. It echoes the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring Temptation of Christ, t ...

, on the Sunday before Ash Monday, 50 days before Orthodox

Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...

. The festival is a colourful 10-day event of people eating, singing,

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

, games, wearing costumes, and attending parties. The festival culminates with a large parade, which includes an array of floats traversing the city.

History

Limassol Grand Parade with young participants

Limassol Carnival Festival, which is said to be an old custom traced to pagan rituals, is now held as an entertaining event. The local belief is that it is a

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

heritage that goes back to pre-Christian times and to an ancient Greek festival honoring

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ...

, the deity of wine and fun. However, the first written reference of the carnival is by Nеоphitos Egklistos, who accuses Cypriots of idolatry and accepting an alien tradition of celebrating the start of the Great Fast. The second historical mention is from Christophor Furkher Nirenberg, whо visited Cyprus in 1566 during a journey to the Holy Land. Nirenmberg was impressed by the carnival parades and told a story about how local noblemen organize amazing feasts, where people dance, sing and have fun. As practiced now in Limassol is a legacy from the Venetians who ruled over Cyprus during the 15th–16th centuries. Unlike the Carnival of Venice, both adults and children can join the Limassol Carnival and as a rule everyone pours foam on each other in the Old City. The celebrations are held in most towns around the island, but the event held in Limassol is by far the largest and most popular. After some groups broke the ground rules in 2015, the Limassol municipality does not allow offending groups or floats from starting from the Enaerios junction and may intercept them at a later stage with the help of police and security guards. The new rules are as follows: * The number of participants in each group should not exceed 500 people * Large amount of alcohol is not allowed on the floats * No DJ is allowed on board the vehicles * Broadcasting music is forbidden * Loudspeakers must be tuned into the radio frequency broadcasting music for the parade The 2021 edition of the festival was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Despite this, people arrived to celebrate the festival as they were allowed to have a "mini parade" which saw them remain in their cars and follow the route that the annual parade would usually take. Later in the day, more people arrived and the event turned into a street party, with most attendees ignoring social distancing rules and not wearing masks. Police eventually intervened. Limassol mayor

Nicos Nicolaides Nicos Nicolaides (; 1884–1956) was a Greek Cypriots, Greek Cypriot painter and writer. Early life Nicolaides was born the son of poor parents in Nicosia, Cyprus, on 3 April 1884. A sister, Maria, followed him two years later. He was only s ...

said that he was "saddened and disappointed" by the behaviour of the attendees. 28 people and two businesses were fined by police.

Importance

Carnival has been celebrated in Cyprus for over a century, regardless of the political or economic conditions of the time. The epicentre of the Carnival in Cyprus is the seafront city of Limassol, the residents of which have a reputation for being the most fun-loving and sociable on the island. Carnival represents a ritual which on the eve of spring affords the opportunity for people to express their faith and optimism for a good year. The municipality conducts a minimum of five events which include an open-air event at Tepak Square. A children's parade is rightly considered to be one of the key events of the carnival and is held on the first Sunday of the festive events. Children customarily dress up in carnival costumes and parade down the streets of Limassol. On the Grand Carnival parade the floats theme and the singing are commonly satirical. The Carnival King or Queen could be presented as a satirical figure representing social, political and economic conditions of relevance to Cyprus or Europe in general. On the final day which is the Grand Carnival more than 150 floats and an estimated 50.000 people take part in the procession. The city's

brass band A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting primarily of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands (particularl ...

and groups of drummers and

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

-toting ''kantadoroi'' (

serenade In music, a serenade (; also sometimes called a serenata, from the Italian) is a musical composition or performance delivered in honour of someone or something. Serenades are typically calm, light pieces of music. The term comes from the Ital ...

rs) accompany the Carnival King (or Queen). During 2014 the satirical theme was the Carnival King depicted with

Euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

signs indicative of the economic crisis in Europe. On an earlier occasion the Carnival Queen was presented as Angela Merkel as they had then considered her responsible for the economic crisis in Cyprus.

Themes

*The first week of the festival begins on a Thursday with entry of the King Carnival (as a satirical display it could be a Queen also) in a procession through the town which is decorated for the occasion followed by a grand fancy dress competition of children that is held at the Tsirion Athletic Stadium. The first week also marks the Meat Week (''Kreatini''), which is the last week for eating meat before

. The day the festival starts is also known as " Tsiknopempti" (meaning "Stinky Thursday"), a name attributed to the cooking aromas of meat pervading the streets. *In the second week of the festival, which is called the cheese week (''Tyrini''), dairy products are consumed. At the end of the week on a Sunday the celebration involves the Grand Carnival parade which is taken through the Makariou Avenue of Limassol. People from all parts of the island gather to watch the "floats with the serenade and other masqueraded groups." *Throughout the festival period most hotels and clubs in the city hold fancy dress balls and parties. Clowns, cowboys, pirates, dragons, ancient Greeks and medieval knights are popular themes, but pop stars along with characters from the year's hit movies and musicals are also a common sight.

Location

The Limassol Municipality organizes the final Carnival Grand Parade all the way through Makariou Avenue (~), Limassol's

high street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

.Go fashion shopping on Limassol’s Makarios Avenue
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Images

File:Carnival in Limassol 2014 (12888019003).jpg,

Super Mario (also known as and is a platform game series created by Nintendo starring their mascot, Mario. It is the central series of the greater Mario (franchise), ''Mario'' franchise. At least one ''Super Mario'' game has been released for every ma ...

costumes in the 2014 carnival File:Carnival in Limassol 2014 (12887788193).jpg, Roman-Hellenic theme in the 2014 carnival File:Carnival in Limassol 2014 (12887388795).jpg,

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

costumes in the 2014 Carnival File:Grand Carnival Parade 2016.JPG, Ground view of the 2016 carnival File:Limassol Grand Carnival Parade.JPG, Children in the 2016 carnival File:Limassol Grand Carnival Parade random crowd dancing.JPG, Crowd dancing in the 2016 carnival File:Limassol Carnival Parade Group.JPG,

Kimono The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn Garment collars in hanfu#Youren (right lapel), left side wrapped over ri ...

costumes in the 2016 carnival File:Limassol Parade Street Mascots.jpg, Costumes in the 2016 carnival File:Limassol Parade on Makariou from rooftop.JPG, Aerial view of Makariou Avenue from the 2016 carnival File:Limassol Carnival Decoration.jpg, Carnival Decoration in the Limassol Marina, in 2016 File:Limassol Carnival 2016.jpg, Joker costumes in the 2016 carnival File:Limassol Carnival 2016 - 25760581115.jpg,

costumes in the 2016 carnival

References

Bibliography

* * * {{cite book, last1= Merin , first1=Jennifer , last2= Burdick , first2=Elizabeth B., title=International directory of theatre, dance, and folklore festivals: a project of the International Theatre Institute of the United States, inc, url=https://archive.org/details/internationaldir00meri, url-access= registration , date=1 November 1979, publisher=Greenwood Press, isbn=978-0-313-20993-2 Festivals in Cyprus Limassol Carnivals in Cyprus Spring (season) in Cyrpus