Carnival in Barbagia, discover the events of 2023

Sardinia, in many of its cultural expressions, can be defined as unique in the Mediterranean basin. The peculiarity of the Nuragic civilization, a scientifically proven genetic identity, its own culinary traditions. This originality is equally evident in the carnival celebrations of Barbagia.

The Carnival in central Sardinia (su Karrasecare) is a separate event, which has nothing to do with any type of carnival present in Italy or in other areas of the island (Oristano, Tempio or Cagliari).

Credits Sardegna Turismo

Its peculiarity is the representation of the relationship between man and nature, its iconography are the masks in which man and animal are confused, in a ritual in which nothing of the cheerful and burlesque carnival is found, on the contrary.

The Carnival of Barbagia is fire, it is birth and death, it is rhythmic dance, it is scary or zoomorphic mask. It is the celebration of the strength of man who yokes the animal, who fights against nature and who is at the same time an element of it.

 

When does the Carnival in Barbagia start?
Tradition has it that the Carnival begins in the weeks following the big fires that are lit in honor of Sant’Antonio Abate (January 16 or 17) and therefore from early February, to increase in intensity until Thursday 16 February (Shrove Thursday) , Sunday 19 and Tuesday 21 February (Shrove Tuesday).

The carnival in Barbagia in 2023 promises to be a great success.

Given the extraordinary results achieved by Cortes Apertas 2022, the celebration of Carnival in Barbagia 2023 also promises to be a highly successful initiative.
Although many towns in Barbagia have jealously guarded their carnivals to this day, today three towns in particular are enjoying international success.
This happens due to the particularity and beauty of the masks, but also  for the passion with which their communities have valued and been able to communicate their tradition:  Mamoiada, Orotelli and Ottana.

 

The Carnival of Mamoiada, the celebration of pre-Christian agro-pastoral rites

Mamoiada has preserved and valued its carnival rites perhaps better than any other town in Sardinia.
In fact, her name is almost automatically combined with the Mamuthones, who together with the Issohadores are the masks of their carnival. A beautiful museum, frequent architectural references in the town, a prized Cannonau are named after this frightening mask, part man and part beast.

Covered in thick dark sheep skins, with a mask with an imperturbable expression and a feminine kerchief around the head, they are known for the noise that accompanies them, generated by over 30 kilos of cowbells strapped to their backs which are played with a slow rhythm but constant.

Their number is always twelve, one for each month of the year, while that of the

Issohadores, who are their guardians and who continually threaten them with the “soha”, the snare, is always eight.

Every year Mamuthones and Issohadores begin their wanderings through the streets of Mamoiada on January 17, in conjunction with the fires of St. Anthony, ending on Shrove Tuesday.

 

Credits Sardegna Turismo

Orotelli’s thurpos, a recreation of life in the fields

The characteristic masks of the Orotelli Carnival are also dark, but the character’s face is not hidden by a large mask because the face is blackened with soot. Dressed in long woolen coats and with cowbells on their backs (less in number and weight than the Mamuthones), the Thurpos stage the daily life of the agro-pastoral area in their wanderings. Some impersonate shepherds, others (Thurpos Boes) oxen, others represent blacksmiths mimicking the act of shoeing oxen.

During the parade the Thurpos tend to “take” some spectators from the public and force them to offer them a drink, while on Shrove Tuesday they are the ones to offer the spectators a drink.

 

Boes and Merdules of Ottana, reinterpretation of the Dionysian cult

Anthropologists see in the masks of the Ottana carnival a reinterpretation of the pre-Christian Dionysian cult or of the mythology linked to the bull.

Dionysus was celebrated with propitiatory rites and dances so that he would revive the fields in early spring, after months of frost. Another interpretation is instead linked to the cult of the bull, invoked instead to promote the fertility of the herds, which risks transforming the man who wants to tame him into an animal. Boes (the oxen) and Merdules (the owners of the oxen) stage a sort of chase through the streets of Ottana, almost in a race between man and animal.

The Merdules have wooden masks with hints of deformity and have their heads covered with a dark handkerchief, they wear large sheepskins and carry the whip and stick used to subdue the Boes, dressed substantially like them but with a mask of bovine features and a wide belt carried transversally, where large cowbells are attached.

 

In this brief overview of the Carnival celebrations in Barbagia, the extreme difference between these, which appear more like pre-Christian rites of agro-pastoral origin, and the parades with cheerful masks and confetti to which we are more accustomed, is clear.

We are faced with something primitive, extremely powerful in its being evocative of a past in which man was part of the elements of nature. The atmosphere you breathe has much more to do with ancestral religious rites than with a light-hearted party. The solemnity of the masks, their rhythmic gait through the crowd, that feeling of surprise and almost awe that one feels as they pass are memories that remain, perhaps because they also awaken something innate in us.

 

This is the strength of the Barbagia carnival, one of a kind.

An event to experience, for which we recommend our Residence Hotel Grandi Magazzini in Nuoro. Spacious and bright rooms where you can relax after a day discovering the most authentic and ancient Carnival in Barbagia.
We are waiting for you!

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