For Immediate Release
Contact: Ellen James (412) 622-3361

May 21, 2007

Carnegie Museum of Natural History Presents
¡CARNAVAL!
June 23 to January 6, 2008

Origins of Carnival: Ritual, Masquerade, Play and Renewal
Carnival began in Europe in the Middle Ages to mark the coming of Lent, when Catholics abstain from meat and other means of sin and vice. The name for the event was derived from the Latin term, carnem-levare — “to remove oneself from meat.”

In the next few centuries, as the celebration spread throughout Europe, the name was shortened to the Italian Carnevale, meaning “flesh farewell.” By the 18th century, European adventurers had transplanted the Carnival tradition to the New World.

Wherever it spread, Carnival absorbed elements of other cultural festival traditions and was translated into the language of its new home: Carnaval in Spanish and Portuguese, Carnival in English, Mardi Gras in French, and in German, Karneval or Fasching.

Though Carnival began in acknowledgement of a religious event, the celebration eventually became more secular and egalitarian, incorporating traditional festivities related to the seasonal transition from winter to spring, and inviting all ages and social classes to take part. Whether rich or poor, old or young, Carnival was a time for everyone in the community to let loose by joining in various forms of ritual, play and masquerade. In donning outrageous disguises, playing rowdy games and engaging in all-out revelry, communities were bonded and individuals uplifted through the shared sense of exhilaration and renewal that the Carnival experience inspired.

Carnival Around the World Today
By the 19th century, Carnival celebrations around the world were structured civic affairs whose distinct forms of ritual, masquerade and play gave rise to the cherished Carnival customs these communities are known for today. The exhibition ¡CARNAVAL! displays a range of masquerade and performance themes that illuminate the cultural history, identity — and even the special characters — that distinguish each site.

In rural Laza, Spain, and Tlaxcala, Mexico, Carnival customs remain closely tied to the arrival of spring. Masquerading peliqueiros in Laza, wearing ornate costumes and masks said to derive from the 16th-century dress of tax collectors, run through town whipping residents to remind them it is time to play. Revelers also ritualize aggression, throwing ashes, flour, water and dirt filled with ants. A morena, or brown cow masquerader in a carved wooden mask, appears amidst the ant throwing to butt people, lift women’s skirts and add to the chaos.

The Nahuatl Indians of Tlaxcala, disguised as wealthy Spanish and Mexican charros, furiously crack long whips to simulate the sound of thunder in a symbolic petition for rain, fertility, and the community’s well being in the coming spring. In other Tlaxcalan villages, young men masquerade as chivarrudos, imitating working class, late-19th-century Mexican cattlemen wearing chaps made from the hides of goats, or chivos. The masquerade is a way that the Indians make fun of cowboys who often stopped in town for supplies.

Carnival came to an end in the early 20th century in Venice, Italy, after government and religious officials criticized the excessive nature of the event. But it was revived in the 1980s with all the pomp and flourish of the Renaissance era, featuring costumed counts, Harlequins and Pierrots who float through fog in festooned gondolas along the city’s famous canals.

Similarly, in 17th-century Oruro, Bolivia, Catholic priests who accompanied Spanish settlers hoped to repress the native Aymara and Quechua peoples’ reverence for Supay, the Andean god of the underworld. The priests viewed Supay as the devil in disguise, prompting the natives to mock the religious directive by disguising themselves in brilliantly colored masks of big-eyed, long-horned diablos, or devils, which remains a popular Carnival costume today. Other masqueraders known as morenos emulate enslaved Africans who worked beside Indian laborers in the Bolivian mines and on lowland plantations. Their elaborate embroidered barrel-shaped costumes are believed to symbolize the richness and weight of the silver extracted by the slaves in the mines. The morenas also carry matracas, or noisemakers, whose creaking noise is said to imitate the sound of chains dragging behind the slaves’ feet.

African slavery is also a strong Carnival theme in the Brazilian cities of Recife and Olinda. There Afro-Brazilians re-create 18th and 19th century performances that took place on rural sugar plantations where enslaved Africans worked alongside Brazilian Indians. Groups known as maracatu de baque solto dance to loose rhythms played by small orchestras. Spectacular figures known as caboclos de lanca, or Afro-Indian lancers, represent warriors possessed by Amerindian or African spirits. Wearing large cowbells and carrying long lances, they dance, leap, drop to the ground and sometimes duel with one another.

In Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago — where Carnival is known as Mas — modern-day Afro-Trinidadians masquerade as simple devil figures and elaborate
devil “rulers” clad in large papier-mâché masks and ornate costumes with capes. The rulers have names such as Satan, Lucifer and the Bookman, who carries a book to record the sins of the people of Trinidad. Another important Carnival activity is the crowning of a King and Queen, who dance across the stage in ornate costumes highlighting a chosen theme. Costumes often integrate sophisticated technology—like pyrotechnics and enormous, wheeled armatures—to lend their performance special effects.

Perhaps more than anywhere, the communities of Basel, Switzerland, and New Orleans, U.S.A., stay true to the 19th-century transformation of Carnival to structured celebrations where tight-knit community groups and societies began representing themselves with costumes, floats and other public displays.

In Basel, where Carnival is known in Swiss-German as Fasnacht, members of work guilds form Carnival “cliques” and design costumes, elaborate lanterns and other props around a theme that criticizes or otherwise comments upon current political or social issues. Favorite Basel characters include the mischievous, confetti-carrying Waggis, whose large teeth and bulbous nose stereotypes the French Alsatian farmers who once sold their produce in Basel street markets. The elegant Alti Dante, or old aunt, wears a pointed nose, gray wig and straw hat adorned with feathers, flowers or even a small bird. She offers revelers gifts from her purse: a spray of perfume, hard candies or a sip of spirits.

At Carnival in New Orleans, famously known as Mardi Gras, societies called krewes build massive floats, host elegant balls and commission expensive costumes. However, the krewes, which are generally formed along social and racial lines, express themselves in very different ways — from the white society of Rex that sponsors the Mardi Gras royal who parades through the streets on an elaborate throne with a scepter and crown, to members of the working-class African-American krewe of Zulu, who protest black stereotypes by dressing in black face and grass skirts and throw coconuts into the crowd.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History, one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, can be enjoyed Tuesdays through Saturdays 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sundays 12 p.m.-5 p.m., and Mondays 10 a.m.-5 p.m. after July 4th through the week before Labor Day. Admission is $10 for adults, $7 for senior citizens, $6 for children ages 3-18 and full-time students with ID, and free for members and children under 3. Convenient parking is available at the museum's six-level parking facility, located directly behind the museum. The museum can be accessed from the intersection of Forbes Avenue and South Craig Street. For more information, please call 412. 622.3131 or visit www.carnegiemnh.org.

Available Images

 Click here for ¡CARNAVAL! press release.