The (Sur) Real Carnevale

I have already written about the real Carnevale, as far as I am concerned, so this will be just a brief post about the other, surreal Carnevale, the one that brings all the folks to Sciacca. Yes, I did go to it, for two nights. The first night alone, to hang out with my friends at Panneficio Americana, who were busy selling 300 kilos of sausage in sandwiches, and working twenty hour days to do that and bake the rolls that the sandwiches were made with. The second night, I went with Bridgette's brother Donato, and his neighbor from Mississauga, Carl, the retired Toronto cop, and wondered around greeting all the folks in the street that I knew. I also danced in front of one of the floats, and fortunately, I did not take a picture of that.

Carnevale always reminds me of Dylan's Desolation Row ('They're selling postcards of the hanging, . . .The circus is in town'). Or of the State Fair in Syracuse, where I have worked, or the County Fairs of Monroe or Chautauqua Counties, or of the CNE. The same thing. The same food. The same smells. The same folks.

But the costumes were good, especially the costume of Peppe Nappa, who appears in green above. He is the spirit of Carnevale, and his float hands out spirits for Carnevale for free to those who do not want to buy thier own wine. Ah, Carnevale. The glasses are small, so folks still end up buying plenty of wine.

It was noisy, it was dirty, and most of all, it was fun. It was the community coming together to have a good time, and to make silly looking floats, it was a time to help me understand why people even on the fifth floor of apartment
buildings close their shutters. It was also a time for the local poets to make up song lyrics that went with the satirical themes of the floats, and then the musicians put them to Sicilian folk tunes.

Of course it rained one night, and the floats all managed to brave the wind and the rain without having any damage done to them. The winning float entry will be determined soon, when all the ballots and politics are finished, and then the groups that build the five story tall, animated paper mache floats will begin to plan next year's edition, which means they will have to read the papers and see who they should make fun of next year. My bet is that there will be a float about former and future Prime Minister Prodi, about the American elections, and about soccer. Of course, that is a sucker bet, as it has been right for a few years now.

The day after Carnevale, everyone slept in. Stores remained closed for the unofficial holiday of Carnevalone, and families got together in homes or in the country to have a nice relaxing, mid afternnoon breakfast. What could be better.