February is For Carnival
Disappointing Memories and Making Amends
My first memory of Carnival — Carnaval, in Portuguese — brings some feelings of fear.
I remember being on my way up the street in my hometown with someone, probably one of my parents, and there was a guy dressed in rags or white cloth. Masked.
Back then, young people, mostly men, would dress up in masks or other disguises and go around the streets playing tricks on whoever they could find.
My grandpa called them mascarados — masqueraders.
For a kid, it was pretty scary.
But in kindergarten, it was safer.
The kids would all wear costumes and go on a parade around the village. The teachers and the stay-home mums would also dress up and come with us — a different day!
My Childhood Memories of the Carnival Aren’t Happy Ones
The memories that stick with us are the ones that have left a mark, good or bad. And the memory that persisted from those childhood carnivals is one of disappointment.
My cousin and I had matching costumes and were supposed to go together in the kindergarten parade. But in the day, he forgot to dress up.
The kindergarten teachers had a backup costume for the kids who showed up without one: with a cardboard hat and a wooden spoon, they became bakers.
Me? I had to hold hands with another kid I wasn’t fond of because he had a matching costume.
I felt so betrayed!
And I never really liked to celebrate carnival anymore.
Carnival is a time of revelry, and I am no extrovert. To be really into it, you have to feel that you fit in, which I never really did.
Nonetheless, throughout the school years, every Carnival, I would wear a costume for school, like most kids.
But it didn’t mean anything to me, so I have no memories. It was just something to do.
Then Carnival Moved Away From Tradition
By the time I was finishing primary school, it had become monothematic and commercial.
The schools would decide the costumes, and kids in the same school year would all dress the same.
One year, the theme was telecommunications. Everyone in my class was dressed as a mime — the mascot of the largest telecommunications brand back then — and everyone in my sister’s class was a mailman.
I think I remember it because, for the first time, it saved me the pain of having to choose a costume since we were all the same. But, looking back, it turned carnival monotonous and was an originality killer.
The mascarados went extinct…
There were no young men playing tricks on the streets anymore.
…and Brazilian-style celebrations substituted the traditional ones.
In my region, samba parades with women and girls in bikinis and feathers became mainstream. And that killed whatever interest I might have had in Carnival.
I have nothing against Rio’s Carnival: it just does not make sense in Portugal to have a celebration designed for summertime when it is still cold here.
It feels forced. But people like it and are really proud of it. So, it persists.
Anyway, in high school, we had no celebrations. And since there was no demand on me to wear any disguise, I skipped carnival ever since.
I went to parties in college, but I never dressed up. I do not feel comfortable in disguise.
Looking at Carnival From a Different Perspective
A few years ago, living abroad, I became more interested in Portuguese folklore and traditions, such as the roots and meaning of Carnival.
There is no single explanation for the origin of the word carnival:
- One theory says it comes from the Latin words carne (meat/flesh) + vale (farewell), or the Italian expression carne levare and refers to saying goodbye to meat and other matters of the flesh in preparation for the lent before Easter.
- Another says it could come from the Latin carrus navalis (ship-cart), associated with the Roman festival Navigium Isidis (ship of Isis), in which people wearing masks carried an image of Isis to the shore to mark the beginning of the sailing season — and also the beginning of spring.
Carnival festivities around Europe evolved during the middle ages.
Unable to fight the feasts, the Church decided to allow them and adapted them to the religious practices. Luckily, the end of winter coincides with the beginning of the Lenten season.
But, whatever the etymology of the word and whatever the specific traditions of each region, there are common meanings all over the world.
- Carnival is a time to challenge the rules imposed by society. Costumes and masks release people from their identity — no gender, no social status — and from any social inhibitions (like alcohol).
- Carnival is a time for mockery and criticism towards authority. People prepare floats with caricatures of public and authority figures — often politicians — of the previous year or recite verses ridiculing them.
- Carnival is a time to clean up and burn the past in preparation for another cycle. In some places, people actually burn a figure representing everything that went wrong the past year.
What? A massive fire with huge flames? I had to see that!
The Traditions in Northeastern Portugal
The northeast region of Portugal, called Trás-os-Montes, meaning ‘beyond the mountains,’ has always been more isolated.
Though the mountains are not that high, the rugged landscape and austere weather — nine months of winter (inverno), three months of hell (inferno), as they put it — made the region uninviting.
But the isolation helped preserve cultural traditions among the peoples from Bragança (Portugal) and Zamora (Spain), and even a language, Mirandês, that descends from the Iberian languages spoken in that region.
And all over that region, a beloved Carnival figure was preserved: the Careto, like the two in the photo above.
On my first visit to Bragança, I visited the Iberian Museum of Mask and Costume, which shows all the typical Carnival costumes worn by the peoples from that region of Portugal and Spain.
And I got intrigued.
So when I got the chance, I went back there during Carnival season.
👹 Entrudo Chocalheiro 🔔
— that’s what they call the festivities with the Caretos. Entrudo is another Portuguese word for carnival, from the Latin introitus (entrance). And chocalho is a cowbell or a rattle.
The Caretos go out in the streets anonymously, in their colorful costumes, wearing a mask and a lot of chocalhos. They run around the village, looking for girls, and when a Careto finds a girl, he jingles his rattles — chocalhar — and dances with her.
The Caretos remind me of the mascarados in my village.
The Caretos de Podence is the most famous of them all. Partly because the people from the village of Podence created a Cultural Association and disseminated their tradition on the internet.
Caretos are considered diabolical creatures because they’re there to harass but also to amuse. And it also has an allusion to fertility — I mean, boys after girls — as there seems to be a staged wedding when one Careto finds his girl.
I didn’t see any weddings when I visited Podence, only a few Caretos running around and jiggling their chocalhos against some young women (probably, whom they knew personally). Luckily, not me!
In the afternoon, we went to Bragança, where Caretos from various parts of Trás-os-Montes and Zamora gathered in a parade. And, at twilight, they set an enormous devil-like figure on fire in the main street.
🔥 Queima do Entrudo 👹
Entrudo designates both the carnival festivities and the figure that will be set on fire (queimar).
It’s a rural tradition that persisted in the Carnival festivities all over the country — and in other countries too: I’ve seen it in Spain as well — marking the end of the carnival celebration and symbolizing death and renewal.
The end of a cycle and the beginning of a new one.
The end of winter, dead and old, and the beginning of spring, young and full of life.
Making Amends with Carnival
I will not say I am now a fan: I still don’t like the commercial side of it — the typical cheap costumes everyone buys.
But I admire the people who live carnival to the fullest — who build their own costumes, who go out in the streets in character — these are the ones who keep the traditions alive.
And though I will never be that person, I’m glad they’re there and amusing themselves.
I’m more of a quiet person, so I appreciate carnival from the outside. The best thing about it is that it marks the beginning of spring, my favorite time of year.
Is carnival also a tradition-turned-commercial in your culture?
Does it bring you good memories?
Many thanks for reading! 🙏
