It’s probably hard to find someone who would refuse to spend a few days at the carnival. This fun action attracts people like a magnet, but few people know about its mysteries and dangers.
Strange gondola
A few years ago, a middle-class businessman from Russia, who came to the annual carnival with his family, contacted the police in the Italian city of Venice. He filed a report on the missing of his wife and seventeen-year-old daughter, who went to watch the traditional flight of an angel over St. Mark's Square. The ladies never returned to the hotel, and their mobiles remained deaf to the calls of the head of the family, worried about the long absence of their household members. Several acquaintances of the family, who were staying at the same hotel, saw how mother and daughter, dressed in expensive suits, got into a gondola, driven by a man wearing a mask of the plague doctor - one of the most popular at the Venice carnival. However, after that, no one else saw the women. The gondola attracted the attention of eyewitnesses for its slightly old-fashioned appearance and shabby appearance. Some were even surprised: how could she interest wealthy tourists ?!
The Italian police listened to the Russian businessman without much interest and promised to immediately start looking for the missing. However, as the poor fellow later found out, law enforcement officers in Venice receive many such statements during the days of the annual carnival. And they are far from always able to help the victims.
Time of Saturn
Indeed, in the days of a noisy carnival - Venetian, Brazilian or any other - the mysterious disappearance of people is not such a rare case. Esotericists believe that the roots of these "disappearances" lie at the very origins of the holiday. The fact is that the carnival took over from the ancient Saturnalia, who honored Saturn - the god of fertility and time.
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In the autumn, when the harvest was collected, a grandiose festival was held in Ancient Rome, in which all the inhabitants of the Eternal City took part. I must say that the Saturnalia was a time of reincarnation, when everything turned upside down and social differences were erased. Slaves were temporarily freed from all work and even received benefits of free citizens, which they could not even dream of at normal times. Plebeians and patricians danced together, rejoiced and feasted at the same table. Moreover, the gentlemen, forgetting about their high status, served the slaves, however, at the same time, they covered their faces with masks to avoid unnecessary interest.
This custom gave rise to the old legend about the golden age of Saturn's rule before it was overthrown by Jupiter, when there was still no division into slaves and masters and all people were equal on earth.
Of course, this holiday was an outlet for the disenfranchised people, and during its time the slaves prayed to Saturn that it would last forever. And the god of time heard their prayers. They say that, heeding the pleas, he opened the doors to the past and the future, stepping into which you can forever enjoy the fun of the holiday. These portals carry the "lucky man" who accidentally stepped into them, from year to year, from century to century, to the place where festivities in honor of the wise god are noisy, but it’s not easy to get out of their captivity.
Goodbye meat
Indeed, it is difficult to imagine whether this is a great success - to get into the funnel of time, opened by Saturn, because both the Saturnalia and the customs that reigned on them have undergone dramatic changes over time.
With the advent of Christianity, oddly enough, the ancient holiday in honor of the pagan god has not been canceled. However, it acquired new features and was celebrated on the eve of Lent at the end of winter. Hence the new name of the festivities - carnival, which means "farewell to meat."
Moreover, Christianity even turned a blind eye to the mockery of church rituals during the carnival, when jokers parodied services right in the temples, using dogs and donkeys. Music thundered in the city squares, elegant masks danced, jesters, acrobats and wandering actors played funny performances.
In the Middle Ages, as in the era of Ancient Rome, people, covering their faces with a mask, could afford anything. So, respectable ladies behaved like courtesans, and men with impunity infiltrated homes and even convents to explain their love. In addition, during the days of the carnival, it was possible to deal with the enemy by piercing him with a knife or sword right during the dances, without fear of subsequent prosecution by the authorities. Of course, in this state of affairs, the disappearance of this or that person was sometimes explained by the dagger of a hired killer or the kidnapping of an ardent lover, but still at the beginning of the 15th century in Venice, Rome and the southern cities of France, rumors began to circulate about certain corridors of time. If you accidentally step into one of them, you can get lost forever at the celebration of the eternal carnival. These rumors were partly confirmed by the appearance "out of nowhere" of silent masks in strange costumes, which appeared in the squares among the dancers, and then seemed to dissolve into thin air.
Cat, Pierrot and the plague doctor
I must say that by the 16th century even a very original means of protection against unwanted "carnival" time travel had appeared. And one of the masks became such! The fact is that there are not so many classic masks, and each of them received its "purpose" at this holiday quite deservedly.
Unpretentious volts and bouts were held in high esteem by slaves and patricians even in the days of the Saturnalia. Known to everyone in the world today, Pierrot, Harlequin and Columbine, who literally fill cities during the days of the carnival, are the characters of the once popular Italian folk comedy, which both ordinary people and noble gentlemen love with all their hearts.
The first disguise of the eerie, long-nosed plague doctor was made after a great epidemic in the 14th century in memory of the selfless doctors who helped the sick on this celebration of death.
But the most common cat completes the series of these "respected" masks! It would seem, what are his merits ?! It turns out that here the following legend played on the mustache-striped paw. Many believe that cats can move in several parallel worlds at once, but each time they return to their home after such a walk. Therefore, his image could also serve as such a "navigator", and his mask would certainly help to avoid unwanted lapses in time.
Mask, do I know you ?
Be that as it may, the statistics showing the loss of people during the carnivals are disappointing. For example, several dozen tourists from Brazil do not return home after the annual holiday. True, law enforcement agencies explain these figures by the "most common" outburst of crime in the days of fun, but esotericists also note a mystical trail here.
Meetings with strange masks are also interesting, stories about which have also accumulated a lot. So, several of our young compatriots, following to the place of the carnival procession in Venice, saw two lovely Colombins on a half-empty street. When young people approached the girls and, without deviating from the ancient rules of the carnival, tried to make a romantic acquaintance, the ladies, without uttering a word, first called the Russians behind them with gestures, and then suddenly … disappeared into thin air.
Carnival legends say that these masks, who came from other eras, are looking for worthy companions from our time, as they began to be weighed down by loneliness. It is possible that the mysterious gondolier in the mask of the plague doctor was such a guide, who took two Russian women away on a ghostly gondola. I must say that our compatriot never found his wife and daughter, although the Venice police did everything possible to find the missing.
And the bright carnival still keeps its secrets. Maybe it's better for you and me not to rush to join his fun, but just watch the colorful procession on the safe TV?