Carnevale — the Carnival Rises

(draft — to be rewritten from the ledger) The carnival of medieval Europe was a season of reversal and excess set just before Lent, the forty days without meat. In Venice the mask hid rank, and nobles and commoners mixed in the same square. Grown from the memory of ancient winter feasts layered onto the church calendar, this form boarded ships in the age of exploration and crossed to the new world.