Nadur Carnival

{{Use dmy dates, date=September 2015 Gozo-nadur-carnival-91

The Nadur Carnival is unique among the many manifestations of Carnival. It is not organized by any committee and subsequently no rules apply. Sunset invites a multitude of masked and hooded creatures to throng the streets of Nadur - creatures wearing all kinds of funny and grotesque

costume Costume is the distinctive style of dress or cosmetic of an individual or group that reflects class, gender, profession, ethnicity, nationality, activity or epoch. In short costume is a cultural visual of the people. The term also was tradition ...

Nadur Nadur ( mt, In-Nadur) is an administrative unit of Malta, located in the eastern part of the island of Gozo. Nadur is built on a plateauand is one of the largest localities in Gozo. Known as the 'second city', it spreads along a high ridge to t ...

is a small locality with a population of 4500, on the island of Gozo - the sister island of

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

- in the middle of the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

about 50 km south of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. It is run by a Local Council with 5 elected members: the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and 3 Councilors with one full-time Executive Secretary. Besides the religious feast of St. Peter &

St. Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

, known locally as "L-Imnarja" held on 29 June and which lasts a whole week, Nadur is also famous for its annual revelry held on the 5 days preceding Ash Wednesday, the beginning of

Lent Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke ...

. The creativity of all those taking part and the many visitors have earned it other names such as the Spontaneous Carnival,

Grotesque Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...

Macabre In works of art, the adjective macabre ( or ; ) means "having the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere". The macabre works to emphasize the details and symbols of death. The term also refers to works particularly gruesome in natu ...

Carnival. In 2005 the Nadur Carnival was the World Carnival Capital by virtue of hosting the largest ever gathering of international Carnival dignitaries and organizers for the global Carnival City summit organized by the

Federation of European Carnival Cities The Federation of European Carnival Cities (FECC) was founded in 1980 and has been registered in the Court of Luxembourg. Member cities, organization and individual members are engaged in producing popular celebrations or carnivals which represent ...

Festivals in Malta Nadur