Carnevale, also known as carnival or mardi gras, is celebrated in Italy and many places around the world 40 days before Easter, a final party before Ash Wednesday and the restrictions of Lent.

Come to the Carnival! Come to the Carnival! One of the biggest festivals in the world is the Carnival in Venice. It’s always in February or March. Venice

It is said, that people were wearing these masks so they could not be recognized by others, especially their spouses, when they were having some hefty lovemaking sessions on the streets of Venice.

The Carnival of Viareggio is a carnival event yearly held in theTuscan city of Viareggio, in Italy. It is considered amongst the most renowned carnival celebrations in both Italy and Europe.

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.

Carnival in Sardinia is not a common event and it’s strongly felt by Sardinian People. Masks, freaky disguises, dance and songs characterize celebrations.

Villages in the Island deeply change; black and white become the colours of Carnival remembering the ancient origins of mysterious rituals.

Grotesque farce, satirical theatre, paradox plays are the features of this event that you have to live in person. People who take part in the Sardinian Carnival get involved in every celebration and actors and spectators are mixed up together.

The Sardinian Carnival starts with Sant’Antonio Abate ’s celebration and it ends on Ash Wednesday. Celebrations are held on Shrove Tuesday and Last Thursday before Lent, however archaic and traditional rituals are celebrated during the whole Carnival week

TEMPIO PAUSANIA One of the most interesting Carnival that takes place in the island is the Carrasciali Timpiéscu: the Carnival of Tempio Pausania, in Sardinia, with its allegorical floats that parade under the auspicious eye of King George.

This mythical King is one of the most fascinating and mysterious figures of ancient folklore of Sardinia. It has been identified as a symbol of the fertility cycle of the earth.

The magnificence of the entrance of King George in the streets of Tempio is underlined by the richness and vitality of the floats on Carnival Thursday. Floats prepared by the citizens of Temple during the long and passionate preparation for this event.

In Ottana Carnival is called Carrasegare de Otzana, and is where the rural life is mimed and measured second phases of an ancestral culture. In Ottana Carnival is called Carrasegare de Otzana, and is where the rural life is mimed and measured second phases of an ancestral culture. Ottana

Representations take place in the piazzas and streets of Ottana and it is easy to perceive the extraordinary symbiotic relationship between Sardinia’s civilization and the extraordinary surrounding nature

The main typical Carnival masks of this area are called Sos Merdules and Sos Boes (the oxen, along with other masks representing pig, the donkey and the deer), and the tremendous Filonzana: men, animals and death.

Teulada The Carnival in Teulada is not so famous as the others but a lot of people from many villages in the nearby come to admire the allegorical floats and gather in the main squares to dance all evening long. People get involved in every celebration and actors and spectators are mixed up together, both in the dances and the lively parades.