Carnevale has arrived!

Carnevale season began this past Thursday, but the costume frenzy began in mid-January. If you're Italian (child or adult), your mother or nonna (grandmother) might make your costume. Or you could buy one at a store like the one we visited last weekend.

You could start with a mask:
Add a hat:

Or go all out from head (note the wigs in the background) to toe:

Here's the line-up of children's costumes:

A fireworks display...

...and kilos of confetti and string--enough to make you thankful you're not an Italian street cleaner.

This will be the 7th Carnevale I've spent in Italy, and I must say that this next item was a new one for me:

If you can't make out the writing, it says: Hill Billy Teeth. Do Italians really know what a Hill Billy is? I asked my Italian husband what he thought Hill Billy meant, and he said: "It's the guy's name, right?" (In Italy, people often introduce themselves and sign their names with their last name first, then first name. As in: "Hi, I'm Hill, Billy. Nice to meet ya.")

Um--no.

I'm guessing the store won't be selling out of this item anytime soon.

I'll post some more Carnevale photos later this week.

P.S. Today is the first blogiversary of Italian Moments!

Martedì Grasso

Martedì Grasso is the Italian version of Marti Gras, or "Fat Tuesday," the last day of Carnevale before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. It's the last chance for Italians to eat, drink and be merry before giving up whatever they give up for Lent.

Most Italian children have 2 sets of costumes, one for outdoors and one for inside. On the left is a shot of my kids--my daughters are dressed as a cow and giraffe that they wore to the parade in Opicinia (see last post). My son is dressed as Prince Charming...he doesn't have an outside costume, which is the beauty of being 14 months old--he has no clue he's missing out on anything. We just bundled him up in his regular clothes since it was freezing outside, and he was none the wiser.

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The last two photos were taken at an indoor party for kids. As you can see, my giraffe and cow have both turned into Snow White, accompanied by Prince Charming (although in the last photo, we had to drop the "Charming" part and just call him "Prince").

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At indoor Carnevale parties, there's usually a magician, really loud music so no one can hear what the magician is saying, and about 10 pounds of confetti per child. Kids run around wild, fueled by a sugar high from traditional treats like crostoli and frittole (fried pastries), working themselves into a confetti-throwing frenzy while the adults stand around chatting...except for me. It's hard to chat while using your body as a shield so your toddler won't be mowed over by a pack of sugar-crazed 5th grade boys play-fighting each other with balloon swords.

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I didn't mind, though--at least it kept me away from the food table...

Carnevale Parade in Opicina

We're back from the long weekend, so here's a recap of Saturday's Carnevale festivities...

These are some photos of the parade we saw on Saturday in Opicina, the village where my girls go to school. The village was packed with people. The weather would have been perfect if not for the blistering cold wind, but we still had a good time. Basically, parents and small children lined the streets watching the parade, while teenagers chased each other with shaving cream and spray cans of this sticky, colored stuff that doesn't wash off easily if you're caught in the crossfire (I know this for a fact).

It was funny to watch the teens...some things don't change from culture to culture. Like American teens at Halloween, their Italian counterparts were dressed in "cool" costumes (no Minnie Mouse or Donald Duck), and most of them weren't wearing jackets--a big sign advertising: "My parents are home in their warm houses, and have no idea I'm jacketless." In trying to be cool, they must have been freezing. And then watching them chase each other was interesting...it was usually initiated by the boys. If a boy had his eye on a member of the opposite sex, the ritual went something like this:

1. Grin and wave the spray can of shaving cream/silly string/colorful hard-to-wash-off goo at the girl you like.

2. Announce that you're about to spray her.

3. Your object of desire will then communicate her degree of receptivity by either a.) rolling her eyes (this is not good), or b.) shrieking and running away (this is a blantant invitation to start spraying).



Since I can't figure out how to post new photos here, I'll create a new post for yesterday's Carnevale party...