Venice Carnival

Month : February
Place : Venice, Italy
Famous For : Arts Festival
Attractions : Masks of different traditional characters, Fancy-dress Posers, Parties

Venice Carnival is a 12-day long event, offering a journey to step back in time to the 13th Century. This annual festival is held in Venice, Italy attracting a large number of visitors every year. The Venice Carnival starts around two weeks before Ash Wednesday and ends on Shrove Tuesday (Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras), the day before Ash Wednesday. The use of masks is the most dominant feature of this event.

Major Attractions

In 1970's it became a platform for Italian government to bring back the history and culture of Venice by using the traditional Carnival as the centerpiece of their efforts. Masks have always been a central feature of the Venetian carnival. The Carnival of Venice started as a time for celebration and expression throughout the classes, as wearing masks hid any form of identity between social classes. In ancient times, wearing a mask was part of life for much of the year. People used masks to hide from gambling creditors and for plenty more subversive reasons, endowing the traditional Carnivale characters such as the eerily pale, beaked and bespectacled "medico" or the hard-chinned "bauta" with an extra sense of risk and mystery. You can pair one with a cloak and tricorne hat to join the locals, or watch the fancy-dress posers and revelers partying all across the island, late into the dark February night.