The Ladin Carnival

Val di Fassa | from 17.01.2012 to 21.02.2012

The Ladin Carnival is extremely long (as much as a month!). It is celebrated in the Val di Fassa Valley, in the North-Eastern part of Trentino, and in particular in the two villages of Alba di Canazèi and Penia. This tradition is very old, and goes back to the rituals of the ancient peoples who used to celebrate the end of winter.

As in other Alpine Carnivals, the protagonists wear wonderful craftmade wooden masks (usually made of Swiss stone pine wood). Here this masks are called “Facères”. The main characters are the Bufòn, with a long nose and a cone-shaped hat decorated with ribbons, who uses to embarrass girls and tells stories and rhymed jokes, the Laché, wearing flashy clothes and opening the procession, and the Marascòns, big masks with belts with bronze cowbells representing the strong relationships between the inhabitants of Val di Fassa Valley and cattle. These three characters are followed by many other Facères “da bèl” (beautiful masks) and “da burt” (ugly masks), representing positive and negative aspects of life.

All masks run in the village streets forming a loud and merry procession. This is followed by the funny Mascherèdes, short farcical comedies which usually represent a funny comparison between local inhabitants and “strangers”. Finally, the music players come: the ball will last until late at night.

The Ladin Carnival is celebrated in other villages in Val di Fassa valley as well, and each one has its own peculiarities and typical characters. For instance, in Moena there are the Arlèchins (usually two), wearing a pointed hat, cowbells, multicolored trousers and whose face is covered by a white veil, running after children and scaring them with a riding whips, and the Lonc, very tall masks hiding men walking on stilts and covered by a white sheet. These appear at dusk and frighten the people.

Pozza, Vigo di Fassa and Soraga are characterized by the om dal bosch (the “man of the forest”, a frightening and wild character) and the coscrit te ceston, representing a woman carrying into its pannier her 18-year-old son because he is afraid of the conscription visit.