Carnival, Carnaval, Carnevale - What is the
origin of these words and the rowdy festivals associated with
them? The earliest mention of a Carnival celebration is recorded
in a 12th-century Roman account of the pope and upper class Roman
citizens watching a parade through the city, followed by the killing
of steers and other animals. The purpose was to play and eat meat
before Ash Wednesday, which marked the beginning of Catholic Lent
- the forty-day fast leading up to Easter. The Latin term carnem-levare
- to remove oneself from flesh or meat - was used to refer to
the festival.
The pre-Lenten celebration grew in popularity over the next few
centuries, spreading to other European cities and rural communities.
Italians eventually shortened the name to Carnevale - flesh
farewell - and the word was translated into Spanish and Portuguese
as Carnaval, into English as Carnival, and into German
as Karneval. Other terms are also used for the festival
such as the English - Shrove Tide (fasting time), the German -
Fasching (fasting), the Swiss-German - Fasnacht
(night before fasting), and the French - Mardi Gras (Fat
Tuesday). All of these names allude to the feast before the fast
and many 16th and 17th-century celebrations included a mock battle
between Carnival and Lent which symbolized this transition.
