Carnival

According to my Chambers a Carnival is any season of revelry or indulgence, riotous feasting, merriment or amusement. I detest every aspect of these things and although there is a slight difference in definition I’m shoving in Festivals such as Glastonbury as well, even the very G word make me shudder.

So where did these deeply depressing activities sneak into existence? I can’t be bothered to do much original work on the subject so I’ll just repeat what Wiki has to say:

Carnival is a Catholic 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). 

Now the word Shrovetide is actually interesting. The word shrove is a form of the English word shrive, which means to obtain absolution for one's sins by way of Confession and doing penance. Thus Shrove Tuesday was named after the custom of Christians to be "shriven" before the start of Lent.

Rio Carnival

Carnival typically involves public celebrations, including events such as parades (crowded and boring), public street parties (with people I don’t want to know) and other entertainments (no they are not), combining some elements of a circus (I don’t think so). Elaborate costumes (waste of time) and masks (obvious who you are) allow people to set aside their everyday individuality (why would I) and experience a heightened sense of social unity (are you kidding). Participants often indulge in excessive consumption of alcohol (just go to Blackpool on Saturday night), meat (I’m vegetarian), and other foods that will be forgone during upcoming Lent.

Other common features of Carnival include mock battles such as food fights (disgusting) , expressions of social satire (satire is long gone. ‘It died when Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize’, Tom Lehrer), mockery of authorities (where have you been for the last ten years), costumes of the grotesque body that display exaggerated features such as large noses, bellies, mouths, phalli, or elements of animal bodies (presumably this is supposed to be amusing).

However, how did carnivals start? They started long before the emergence of Christianity as it was a celebration that featured prominently in many pagan cultures’ calendars. It has been speculated that their origins began some 5000 years ago with the Egyptians; others speculate it was with the Greeks,  that they occurred around the cycles of nature and the universe, and in many cases they were hijacked by other religions. But that is another story.

What does make sense is that feasting usually occurred before the onset of spring because it was the last chance common people had to eat well because there was usually a scarcity of food towards the end of winter. Livestock was usually slaughtered in November, and towards the end of winter all the left-over winter stock of lard, butter and meat would have to be eaten before they started to decay with the onset of warmer temperatures.

Oddly enough I should be cheering for Carnival, or at least the root of the word, which traditionally comes from the Latin expression carne levare, which means "remove meat" or a folk etymology which derives it from carne vale, "farewell to meat”. I suppose that’s classed as irony.

And thanks to Anne Drinkell for the idea of food.

Mardi Gras Cake

Carnevale

So who am I to give advice
to anyone who loves to show
their costumes in parades on streets
though what I’d like to do is go
back to the carne and the vale
to give a taste of what to eat
in keeping with that Lenten time
that’s drawn to drums or samba beat

For instance let’s take Mardi Gras
where king cake rings are filled with cheese
or cut out jerks at Notting Hill
and take the side of rice and peas
while quindims are best for Rio
with eggs on a coconut base
and they need those masks in Venice
when frittelles with cream smear your face

And they’re just the four I’ve chosen
from the thousands I never shall
leave home to get stuffed and worn out
in any bloody carnival.

Terry Quinn