Out with the Cold, in with the New

CARNAVAL !

Our village school teacher and his students spent a couple of weeks making the enormous papier-mâché Monsieur Carnaval they paraded around the village this past Saturday afternoon to celebrate Carnaval: a festival that takes place anywhere between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday, to encourage winter's demise and the advent of spring.

The word "carnaval" has two origins, one Christian and the other pagan. The former (carne levare levamen) is connected to the beginning of the Lenten fast… a binge, a last chance to indulge in whatever cannot be done and/or consumed during the de-privileging of the carnal that Lent requires.

The other, older origin (carrus navalis) is connected to the god Dionysius and the passage from winter into spring. Historically in France and especially before the imposition of Christianity on pagan customs, people disguised themselves as parts of nature: animals, plants, fruits, vegetables, etc.for the festival. Daniel Vigne's 1982 film Le Retour of Marin Guerre has a wonderful scene depicting men decked out in animal skins for carnavalesque festivities. Today's carnaval disguises look more like American Halloween costumes (also unfortunately transformed over the years), but the fun and spirit of the festival is still alive and well.

So this past Saturday, a noisy fanfare of drums, whistles and horns called us out onto the village square, where a rather cheery looking Monsieur Carnaval was watching over his kingdom from the back of a pickup truck. Costumed and un-costumed villagers of all ages joined in the fun. After about an hour of chit-chat, dancing and candy-throwing, the procession made its way up the village's main street towards the Mairie and schoolhouse, where it turned around to march out of town for the big finale: Monsieur Carnaval was consumed in a big bonfire.

Au revoir l'hiver, bon débarras !