Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-04-08
THE ITALIAN CARNIVAL,

Something About the Festival Carnival in the Sunny Land.
 The period of carnival is the time of
 feasting, dancing, masquerading and
 bVffoonery, principally indulged in in
 Roman Catholic countries, says the London Queen. It begins on the Feast
 of Epiphany, or Twelfth day, and ends
 on Ash Wednesday, when it is succeed
 ed by the austerities of Lent. In these long revels some of the license of the Saturnalia of the ancient
 Romans may be still detected. Milan.
 Rome and Naples were celebrated for their carnivals, but they were carried to their highest perfection at Venice The pleasant place of all festivty,
 The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy. In modern Rome the masquerading in
 the streets and all the out-of-door amusements are limited to eight days,
 during which the grotesque maskers pelt each other with confetti, sugar plums and bouquets. These are poured from baskets from the balconies down upon the masllers passing by below in carriages and afoot, and they, in their turn, pelt the company at the windows. The confetti are made of chalk or flour, and hundred weight is ammuni- tion for a carriageful of roysterers.
 The races, however, are not of the most striking out-of-door scenes. The horses are without riders, but have spurs, sheets of tin and all sorts of things hung about them to urge them onwards. Across the end of the Piazza del Popolo is stretched a rope, in line with which the horses are brought up; in second or two the rope is let go, and away the horses fly at fearful rate down the Corso, which is crowded with people, among whom the plunging and kicking of the steeds often produces serious damage.
 The closing revol of the carnival is the Moccoletti, where the sport con sists in the crowd carrying lighted can- dles, varying in size from the paschal taper to the rush-ight, with two ob- iects in view; first, how to preserve their moccoletti lighted; secondly, how to extinguish the moccoletti of others. The moccolo is kindled by approaching 1t to light. But who can describe the thousand means of extinguishing the moccoletti? The gigantic bellows, the monstrous extinguishers, the super human fans. Dumas, in his Count of Monte Cristo, :" thus wildly describes the strange scene: "The night was rapidly approaching, and already at the shrill cry of moccoletti! repeated by the shriu voices of thousand vendors, two or three stars began to twinkle among the crowd. This was the signa1. In about ten minutes, fifty thousand lights hut- tered on every side between the Piazza del Popolo and the Palais de Venice," sight o3 which it is almost impossible to form any idea without having seen 1t. Suppose all the stars descended from the sky and mingled in a wild dance on the surface of the earth; the whole ac- companied by cries such as are never heard in any other part of the world. The facchino follows the prince, the transtavere the citizens; every one blowing, extinguishing, relighting. This flaming race continued for two hours; the street was as light as day, and the features of the spectators on the third and fourth stories were plain ly visible. Suddenly the bell sounded which gives the signal for the carnival to close, and at the same instant all the | moccoletti were extinguished as if by enchantment. It seemed as though one | immense blast of wind had extinguished | them all. No sound was audible, save | of the carriages which conveyed the | masks home; nothing was visible save | . few lights that gleamed behind the windows. The carnival was over.