Celebrating Carnevale in Year 7 Italian

Year 7 Italian students have been involved in activities to enrich their cultural knowledge of Italy’s much loved Carnevale celebrations, held this year from 14 February to 4 March.

Floats, masks, dance and street performances characterise the festival.

During Carnevale in Italy, masks have a profound cultural and historical meaning. People could hide their identity and social origin behind a mask, and nowadays, every mask continues to tell us a story and is part of a secular tradition of freedom, irony and elegance.

The 2025 Carnevale in Venice involved 19 days of celebration dedicated to the theme Il Tempo di Casanova (The times of Casanova), a Venetian adventurer, on the 300th anniversary of his birth.

Other famous Carnevale celebrations in Italy are in Viareggio (famous for its parades), Ivrea (known for La battaglia delle arance- the battle of oranges), Putignano, Cento and Acireale.

Playing tricks is another feature of Carnevale. A popular saying is “A Carnevale ogni scherzo vale”, that is “On Carnevale everything goes”.

Our Year 7 students were asked to make a mask representing themselves and thoroughly enjoyed the arts and crafts activity.