Carnival of Satriano di Lucania
The Carnival of Satriano (Italian: Carnevale di Satriano), held in Satriano di Lucania, Italy every February, is one of the country's many carnivals. Held on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday before Fat Tuesday (a Mardi Gras festival), it has been conducted for centuries. The event is among the most important carnival traditions of the region and of Italy .
The carnival has been held for centuries.
It comes from the historical destruction of the ancient town Satrianum by Queen Joanna II of Anjou-Durazzo after an aristocratic girl and protégée of the queen was raped in 1421 by young men wearing goat skins.
Three symbols, or masks, represent the nature of the crime.
Representing the young men dressed in animal skins are skin-cladden bears.
Poverty following the destruction of the town is represented by the hermits and sadness is represented by the lent, the women dressed in black.
The carnival kicks off with a parade of costumed people on Friday night, and concludes at Abbamonte square, where there are food stands and folk music. An allegorical parade with people wearing bear, hermit and lent costumes, as well as a wedding procession in which the bride and groom exchange roles, is conducted on Saturday. In it, women dress as men, and men wear women's clothing.
Early Sunday, hermits walk through the streets and herald spring. Later in the day is the "forest walking" in which 131 hermits, representing each of the places in Basilicata, walk into the forest.
The bear (l'Urs) The bear is a symbol of prosperity, good fortune and success
The hermit (lu Rumita) Covered in ivy and holding a branch of holly, participants come out of the woods and stroll through the streets of the town, knocking on doors by rubbing branches with frùscio on the door. In return for their bringing hope for spring, they receive a few coins.
The lent (la Quaresima) The "Quaresima", depicted by men and women, represents an old woman dressed in black with a red face drawn from the mouth up to her cheeks. Covered by a black cloak and walking was a cradle on their head containing a child conceived during the Carnival by an unknown father, represents the difficulty that widowed women in the past.
