The word comes from the Old Italian carnelevale, which in turn appears to be derived from the Latin carnem levare, meaning to put away meat. This, of course, refers to the former practice in the Roman Catholic Church of foregoing the eating of meat during Lent. The eve of Ash Wednesday would have been the time at which meat was to be put away or carnelevale (later, carnevale).
Matthew Spender, in Within Tuscany, cites an Italian expression, Carnevale, quando ogni scherzo vale (during Carnival, anything goes), in discussing the origin of Siena's famous Palio. The Palio is an anything-goes horse race around the Piazza del Campo in Siena. After a number of citizens were left dead in the streets from competitions held during Carnevale in 1291, Siena's municipal authorities substituted the Palio for the even wilder events that townspeople had been participating in previously.
Lent was always my favourite time of the year. Growing up in an Italian neighbourhood, it was the perfect answer to the question:
"Aren't you eating?"
I would just say that I gave up whatever I was being offered for Lent. In didn't take much convincing for my best friend to join me. "It's the perfect time of the year to get in shape for the spring!" She would say. She called me a genius. We could practically starve ourselves and were held up as 'good Catholic girls ' by her mom who so desperately wanted to believe it of her daughter, and of me.
Meanwhile we plotted and meted out revenge on those that had crossed us within the past year, while subsisting on coffee, cigarettes, lettuce, fruit. We walked everywhere, exercised twice daily, read cards, used her mom's wedding ring as a pendulum and cast spells. We really did Lent in a big way. Good times.
AND THEN:
Mardi Gras Dog Parade!
