THE ARCHAIC THE ARCHAIC CARNIVALS OF CARNIVALS OF

DOLOMITESDOLOMITES

Rites and characters from the Rites and characters from the remote pastremote past

• Forms of symbolic representations and ritual practices have reached us across great distances from the remote past

• Some of them survived in the eastern Veneto area of the Bellunese Dolomites

THE ARCHAIC MOTHERTHE ARCHAIC MOTHER• Caracters as Redosega, Marantega (mare antiga) and Donàza, the mythical Hag, correspond to Demetra, related to the underworld, can be considered the common and archaic mother of every vital form and of Carnival itself

Masked processionsMasked processions• During the last days

the ancient Carnivals of Dolomites have the form of masked processions which, after visiting people’s homes, became great parties with masked characters, music, dancing and sharing of food.

ANTHROPOMORPHICANTHROPOMORPHICCCACTERSACTERS

• Most characters are anthropomorphic in the two types of “beautiful” and “ugly”

THE “MATA”THE “MATA”• The most important characters

are the “Mata”, the “guide masks” who lead all the other

• Probably they are part of the largest form of “arlecchini/arlechin/arlechign /(from the German Hölle König - king of hell) that Medioeval culture consider “living dead” come back to life at the arrival of the new season, bringing renovation and fertility

The Mata’s RoleThe Mata’s Role

• They also ensure the continuity between the ancestors and their community

• They are intermediates between the earhtly world and the Divinities: their funcion is a sciamanic one

• The names of these characters contains the “Mata” prefix (Matazin/Matoc/Matiel) probably derived from the latin mactus, namely “crazy” or “mad”

• They are represented in many different ways; often as the chief of a court with some auxiliaries and escorts

• The Mata are augurs of power, force, wealth and beauty wearing gaudy clothes, gold, jewels, mirrors

• Usually the chiefs are young recruits exercising power and responsability representing the new incontaminated power of the community

• They are symbols of the regeneration of the ancestors

• They collect all the food obtaioned during the ritual begging and they share it wit all the escorts

Clowns?Clowns?• The role of the

accompaning characters, often clown or pagliacci, are irreproachable

• They dress in dark colours or are black devils, they soil the bystanders with ashes or soot: they represent the ctonian spirits ascending from the underworld

CommunityCommunity• The winter

masquerade higlight that they respond to profond and lasting human needs:

to be part of a community

YOUNG STUDENTS IN EUROPEPartners: Istituto Marco Belli di Portogruaro (Italia) - Instituto de Enseñanza Secudaria Xesús Taboada

Chivite di Verín (Spagna) - VUC di Lyngby, Copenhagen (Danimarca)

Liceo “Marco Belli” di PortogruaroAnno scolastico 2012/2013