Carnevale 2008

Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, the followers of the Catholic religion in Italy started the tradition of holding a wild costume festival right before the first day of Lent. Because Catholics are not supposed to eat meat during Lent, they called their festival, carnevale — which is a Late Latin expression meaning “to put away the meat.” No one has to force us around here to keep up with traditions! Yesterday for lunch, the family was invited to Antonello’s parent’s house. We dined on a hearty plate of handmade "maccheroni al ragù", involtini di vitello and polpette al ragu' (rolled meat filled with cheese and prosciutto, and meatballs cooked in the ragout of the maccheroni), all of which were prepared following the traditional recipies made by his mother. After lunch, Antonello and I visited our friends and family in costume and then paraded around the town streets. The streets were full of costumes, actually children in costumes, but our look was definitely noticed and appreciated. We had a few photo opportunities with passer bys.



We have a lion tamer in the family...

Mario, MariaElena and Alessandro's boy...



We let the secret out with Justina and Anthony...



The "old man" scaring Chiara!!
Mario dressed as the"Red Corsair".

Read about Carnivale in Sicily here.