The Carnascèr fascian

The carnascèr fascian, the Carinval of Fassa Valley, is one of the most important and famous celebrations of ladin culture. It an ancient tradition taht still nowadays attracts a large audience. The peculiarity of this Carnical is that its main characters are not masks and the fancy dresses widespread in the rest of Italy: here you can find unique characters and masks, that you won't find anywhere.

The Carnival of Fassa Valley begins officially the 20th January, the day of the fair of Penìa, where in the old school building, the great masquerade takes place, that opens the festival. Masquerades and celebretions go on during all the Carnival, in each village of the valley. The last Sunday of Carnival, in Campitello, the end of the Carnascèr Fascian is celebrates, with the great parade of the floats and the traditional masks.

THE MASKS OF THE CARNASCÈR FASCIAN

The Laché: the laché acts as a butler and is the character that introduces and leads the masquerade. His dress is coloured (like almost all the masks of Fassa Valley) and it's completed through a headdress with long fringies on the shoulders and a stick with long coloured bands at its top. At the beginning of the masquerade, the laché speaks a ritual phrase: bringing his handkerchief to his forehead, he says "I ask for permission to enter this castle or palace with my good and big company". After that he runs in the middle of the crowd andpivotting on his stick performs three jumps; then he leaves the scene and the other masks enter.

The Bufon: the bufon is a very joking and naughty character; during the masquerade he moves in the crowd and, beating the backside of women with its "stica" (stick), he teases them due to their phisical defects, or recites verses and rhymes with a sexual background, sometimes also very bawdy (suffice it to think thet at the beginning of the masquerade the bufon speaks the phrase "Lèrga lèrga che son pien de merda" (Make way, make way, I'm full of shit!). The dress of the bufon is very nice: on the fees he wears the "stinfernses" (coloured thick socks), round his waist a sort of apron with a lot fo decorations. The headdress, the "ciapel da bufon", is wonderful too, with the coloured bands on its top; the bufon keeps in his hand the "stica" to needle the women and the "ocel" (binoculars), to watch them better. The face of the bufon is covered by the "facera da bufon", a beautiful hand carved mask, with a red pendant at the end of the nose.

The Marascons: the marascons usually move in each village of the valley in pairs. They never talk, and they only skip arm in arm following a precise rythm; when the hop, they make a tinkling due to the bronzins (cowbells), bounded to their bodies. The dress of the marascon is more simple than the ones of the laché and the bufon: white socks, black pedal pushers, leather belt with the cowbells and finally the headdress, similar to the one of the laché..

The Coscrit te ceston: the "coscrit te ceston" (conscript in the basket) is a character that offer a very nice optical illusion. At a first sight is seems composed by two poeple: it represents an old bowed woman with a big basket on his shoulders, in which you can see the head of a boy. In reality the head of the woman is a part of the dress , while the boy is the real person that wears the mask, putting his head in the basket. This character represents an old mother that takes her child to the army medical visit, because he's feared. 

The Paiazo: this mask is popular only in Campitello; it usually appears next to the laché and in its comic spirit without intelligence is opposed to the argue and intelligent Bufon.

The Zeberchie: the "zeberchie" is a mask showing an optical illusion too. It is composed by two people, the first in front, is seated with the arms laying on a table and with a pair of shoues on the handes; the second stands behind, wearing a large jacket. The optical effect is a midget with very short legs and arms, sitting on the table. This character can't move, so it lays generally on the floats.

The Arlekin: this character has nothing to do with the classical "Arlecchino", very popular in the rest of Italy. It's a tipical mask of Moena, whose function during the carnival is keeping order. Usually you can find two Arlekins in each masquerade, and they generally are two young boys who can run very fast. They have a pointed hut with some "bronzins" (cowbells), a white veil on the face, a very large shirt with little bells, coloured pedal pushers and boots. They keep in the hands a little whip and, brandishin it, they run after the children in the village, beating them woth their weapon.

The Lonc: this masks are tipical of Moena's Carnival too: these characters usually go in pairs and they're very tall, because the people that act their part walk on stilts. they're covered with a white sheet till the feet; at the top there's a big head on which the face is drawn (sometimes they are also faceless). They're inoffensive masks that usually walk in the village at the twilight frightening the people.

The faceres da bel: the "nice masks" are fancy dresses that do not reproduce nothing particular, they only represent positive and pretty characters from an aestathic point of view; an example of these is the "guant da steles" (dress of stars), in the photo, made with little coloured wood splints, joined toghether as a dress.

The faceres da burt: the "awful masks" represent on the contrary horrifyng and wild characters, such as the "om dal bosch" (the man of the forest" or the "strions" (wizards", in the photo.