The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-03-04
CARNIVAL WEEK A
 PERIOD OF SADNESS
 IN LANDS ONCE GAY

This Sunday ushers in the carnival season, but in the lands where it was most jOyously celebrated in the past the black clouds of war have plotted out the sun of mirth. In New Orleans and other southern cities where the language and traditions of old France are still viri1e the happy season of | farewell to the flesh'' will be marked by something like the customary hill arity, but even here the dark and for bidding shadow will obtrude itself. Momus, the god of mockery, must share his throne with the blood spattered, sullen Mars. The French of Canada and the LatinS of Central and South America share in this universal sadness at the period once the gladdest and merriest of the year. Ash Wednesday, with it's gloom. and the subsequent season of Lenten de- nial, seems more in keeping with the worlds spirit just now than the hilar- ity which customari1y precedes it. France, Belgium. Italy, Spain and Portugal are the countries in which Mardi Gras, the eliminating day of the carnival season, is most generally and enthusiastically observed. While celebrations were held in every city, town and village, the carnival spirit had it's center in Nice, that charming i Mediterranean city on the Crescent
 
 4od of the year, became in happier times the. Playground of the world. Vast nultitudes of F'renchmen, Ital- ians and Germans made Nice their Mardi Gras Mecca, and mingled in the carefree crowds were many wealthy men and women from North and South America, bent on the full en- joyment of Europe's most spectacular holiday. All of the wonderful artistic ingenuity of the French people was centered on making the annual Mardi Gras procession a thing of charm and l beauty. The long cavalcade of floats presented a spectacle compared with which anything of it's kind ever seen on this side of the Atlantic seemed crass and garish and vulgar. Perhaps the most remarkable fact of all about the Nice pageant was that it always started exactly at the minute set and moved as if by c1ockwork over the route. Those who have stood for hours awaiting the passing of 8 pa- rade in an American city can ap- preciate the thought and foresight in- vo1ved in bringing about such a result.
 This year, however, the broad Ave nue de la Care in Nice will present no such spectacle. The happy crowds that once filled it to overf1owing, laughing, singing and shouting, are but a memory. Many of those who once took part in the confetti battles
 
 having flung them into battles where the 1eaden messengers of death took the place of confetti.
 While the carnivals of the latin people have often been described, Americans know little of the similar celebration in Russia. In the CzaT 5 vast empire the period preceding Lent IS known as tMaslianitsa,' or ftbutter week" It bears little resemblance in it's observance to, the happy, hilarious carnival of the Latin peoples e tha P oman Catholic faith. Eating is the g1 eat feature of the Russian festival. The Russian prepares himself for the abstentions of Lent by gorging wfC1 food, and consuming an immense quantity of champagne or vodka. Owing to the prohibition of the saIe of vodka in the Czar's donainions, and years Maslianitsa celebration is likely to be more honored in the breach than in the observance.
 As Nice is the center of Latin pre- Lenten gaiety, SO is Moscow, Fholy Moscow the Mecca of the Russian the wealthy Russians, with not few sons of the Balkans, gathered in Mos COW at this period to indulge in a. veritable orgy of food and drink. The restaurants and drinking places were | open all night. The Muscovite who gave a banquet for his friends usually set the hour at o'clock in the even- ing, and the eating and drinking con tinued until in the morning. All night entertainments of various sorts were provided for the diners.
 Among the peasants the same gorg- ing prevailed, although the diet was necessarily simpler. The main feature is a sort of pancake called the b1iny. l This is covered with butter and then spread over with caviar, smoked fish or sour cream. The Russian considers it his religious duty to eat large quan- week preceding Lent, as it is thought that these foods will stick to his bones'' and enabled him to resist the temptation to- gluttony during Lent.
 The seven days the almost savage gIuttony of Maslianitsa continues, un- til ended midnight of Forgiveness Sunday The Russian Lent begins Monday instead of on Ash Wednesday. The Russian takes his Lent very ser iously, and most of the restaurants, theatres and cafes are closed. In the hotels and the few restaurants that remain open music is prohibited by law. The pious peasants subsist on a diet scarcely sufficient to keep body and soul together, and the Great Fast is vigorously adhered to until Easter.
 The true carnival season in all | countries except Russia and the Bal kan states begins on this Sunday and consists of three days, the great fete day being Tuesday, commonly called Mardi Gras, which in literal French means Fat Tuesday, The name was given to the festival in the middle ages, because the Tuesday preceding Ash Wednesday, is the last day on which the. devotee is permitted to live on the fat of the land until Easter ends the period of se1f-deniaI.
 The religious services on the Sun day preceding Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday are an important feature of the program in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Belgium, and in Latin American countries. The cerenaoniHs i1cjdapt +o tho dav are of an i'm