Carnival in our school (Scuola Media Ovido, Sulmona)

In our school we are celebrating Carnival (It. "Carnavale") with parties, music, masks and costumes. It's the final winter festival and it's really funny for us.

CARNIVAL
In our tradition the period from January 17 until the Tuesday preceding Ash Wednesday (Shrove Tuesday) is dedicated to the Carnival. The spirit of this holiday is expressed by an old proverb "a carnevale ogni scherzo vale" (a carnival every joke is good), in fact every one forget everyday problems and, protected by the mask that makes it unrecognizable, is free to laugh and eat their fill. Carnival has origins in ancient Rome where there were several celebrations in honor of the gods, along the streets of the city and that included the use of masks. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, in Italy born the "Commedia dell'arte", which used the Italian masks, ie characters that reappear in every comedy with the same name, the same costume, the makeup or masks, the same language. These characters, like Harlequin, Pantalone, Colombina, Dr Balanzone, Pulcinella became famous throughout Europe. Disappeared over time from the scene of the theater, the masks have survived only in festivals and masked carnival. Today, the typical Italian ancient masks, such as Pulcinella, Arlecchino, Balanzone, etc.. are linked to caricatures of vices and defects of the inhabitants of various regions of Italy Each year many are the emergence of new and imaginative masks along with their ancestors and all together, like a long time ago, the same goal: to ensure happiness. Today the carnival is celebrated with events everywhere, masked parades, floats. The mask performs several functions: vegetative symbol of the forces of nature, animals or the dead, is to exorcise and mock the form of satire and hierarchical authority figures. Typical are the manifestations of mere tourist attractions, like the carnival of Viareggio, where "wagons" playing in caricature form, the events during the year. Often, the carnival ends with the trial, sentencing and execution at the stake of a doll that embodies Carnival, which are assigned all the blame.

The italian maschs

Epiphany and Candlemas

All January long, here in France, we have celebrated the Epiphany in our families and even at school. We have bought frangipane cakes in our bakeries or in supermarkets and the more fortunate of us found charms, and thus became kings of the day.

Yesterday, it was the Cadlenas...it's a day when we eat a lot of pancakes !!!

ENGLAND - FESTIVAL CALENDAR

Pupil's from Year 6 (aged 10-11) have created a calendar showing festivals we celebrate in England each month. Take a look at the work from Class 6C.

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

What we ate ...

Christmas in Italy

During our Christmas holidays we spent our time with our family and we were in the position to see some Italian cities, too. This is our virtual trip around Italy we have organized for you!

The Epiphany

The Epiphany

The six January we celebrated the Epiphany. This day ends the Christmas period. According to the Catholic religion Epiphany recalls the arrival of the Three Wise Men to the Child Jesus. This is a special holiday for children. Indeed we imagine the Befana as an ancient Santa Claus-like figure whose name means "giver of gifts" and appears as a friendly old witch who rides through the air on a broomstick, dropping through chimneys to fill up with stockings toys and candy. All we use to write a letter to Befana to ask for gifts. However Befana is a bit like our court. In fact, she brings sweets and toys to children during the year were good and ash and coal to bads. So we in the morning of Epiphany we never know what we will find in your sock and the night before we are all a little worried.
Pupils of class II A-B