Carnival is a holiday that is mistakenly considered "pure fun".
To know how to have fun in the present moment means to know how to let go of the thoughts and worries of everyday life, to know how to laugh means to know how to see the contrasts and disparities of the world as part of the game of life, to know how to joke about situations and people means to know how to stop a step before the feeling of pity that, as Pirandello claimed, hides after the first superficial perception of the opposite.
But there is nothing superficial about knowing how to stop, for a few days, to grasp the ridicule of human earthly existence, without recriminations about one's condition, but by feeding an inner, serene, awareness.
It takes wisdom to do this, the wisdom of the simple man who also faces difficulties with a smile on his face.
Of this wisdom the Tuscans are "healthy bearers" and that is perhaps why Stenterello,the only traditional mask of the Florentine Carnival, is the highest expression of such a dowry.
Stenterello, a Florentine, mingherlino, of low social background, is endowed with a pungent irony that allows him, despite "the hardships",to laugh and make people laugh at every situation, however unfair and adverse it may be.
Although not everyone can appreciate the "ironic wisdom" of the Tuscans, when it's Carnival time, tourists from all over Italy come to have fun in the cities that host some of the most famous carnival events on the Peninsula.
This year, then, it seems that there will be a lot of wisdom even in the floats, which have put aside a bit of political satire to represent situations and characters related to environmental sustainability and the protection of planet Earth.
So here are the dates (non-continuous) that in this February 2020 you have to mark on the agenda, to experience firsthand some of the most famous Carnival festivals of Tuscany:
- Carnival of Viareggio (Lucca), from 01/02 to 25/02/2020
- Carnival of Foiano della Chiana (Arezzo), from 02/02 to 01/03/2020
- Carnival of Follonica (Grosseto), from 02/02 to 23/02/ 2020
- Carnival of Florence, from 01/02 to 25/02/2020
- Carnival of San Giovanni Valdarno (Arezzo), from 26/01 to 26/02/2020
- Carnival of Santa Croce sull'Arno (Pisa), from 09/02 to 01/03/2020
- Carnival of Bientina (Pisa), from 02/02 to 25/02/2020
Have fun and good rediscovery of the wisdom that Carnival can teach!
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