The Montemarano Carnival - Montemarano (AV)

JANUARY 17TH, CARVIVAL

The Carnival of Montemarano is a folklore event that begins on 17 January, the feast day of Saint Anthony the Abbot, and culminates on Sunday, Monday and Shrove Tuesday.

The festival ends on the following Sunday with the dramatic-satirical farce of the death of Carnival, the public reading of his will and his rebirth with the tarantella danced on the ashes. Montemarano’s carnival is characterised by the presence of a peculiar and ancient form of tarantella, played with musical instruments and danced by pairs of masked dancers, known as “mascarate”, who parade through the streets of the town with the participation of the entire population. The rhythm of the dance is determined by the figure of the caporabballo, a pulcinella who leads the tarantella. The Caporabballo’s role is to open and lead the procession, giving instructions on how to dance so that the masks and the crowd move in an orderly and peaceful manner. Traditional gestures include the throwing of sweets into the crowd (the characteristic confetti) from the floats and from the caporaballo while the tarantella is being danced.

According to careful ethnomusicological and anthropological studies carried out in the area by Annabella Rossi, Roberto De Simone and Diego Carpitella, the presence of a processional dance in the carnival ritual can be traced back to pre-Christian rituals, specifically to similar elements present in the Roman festivals of Saturnalia and Dionysia.

The transmission of carnival culture takes place primarily within the family: parents involve their children from an early age, giving them small musical instruments and making miniature copies of typical historical costumes, such as the caporaballo or the pacchiana. Traditionally, the children of the families of the dancers or players in the group are placed at the front of the column of dancers in the mascarate. The youngsters then turn to the older players to learn the techniques of the tarantella ‘by ear’ and accompany them during the carnival and throughout the rest of the year until they become independent musicians.