Putignano - Puglia - Italy - Putignano Carnival

The origins of the Carnival in Putignano

The Putignano Carnival has very ancient roots, probably dating back to before the church institutionalized and recognized this festival as a transition between Advent with Christmas and Lent with Easter. Some scholars, in fact, argue that there were propitiatory pagan rites aimed at the cult of Dionysus, god of ecstasy, intoxication and the liberation of the senses, dating back to a few centuries before Christ when the then small town was under the dominion of Magna Greece whose area of colonies developed throughout central-southern Puglia from Bari and the southeast of Bari, up to the Tarantina and Salentina area.

The Hangars

The hangars of the papier-mâché giants are nothing more than the creative workshops in which the mammoth works are made that then parade during the Putignano carnival.

Three sheds, owned by the municipality, built at the beginning of the 70s which suitably divided into seven modules house the papier-mâché masters and their collaborators. 1600 square meters that seem immense empty, but which, among newspapers, glue, skeletons of welded iron pipes and clay casts, are reduced to a minimum. Thanks to soft lights and colors, colors, colors in them you can breathe the air of a centuries-old tradition.

The walls, over 16 meters high, are covered with sketches created by the papier-mâché masters who reproduce the floats made in previous years, to constitute a small gallery that takes up the evolutions of the themes proposed by the commission for the official competition. Immense sliding doors with vertical metal slats serve as protection and curtain during the day of the processions, when the floats are brought from the shelters in procession at the beginning of the parade route.

According to an urban redevelopment project, the historic "papier mache creative district" will one day be demolished and give way to a more efficient and modern structure located in another area. With a larger surface it will be able to accommodate more creatives than papier-mâché.

"U ndond'r" una danza che procede oscillante. L'altalena per i festeggiamenti del Carnevale

'U NDONDO'R, with etymological roots of the dialect word in the Greek language, has the meaning of "walking and swinging, swaying"

'U ndond'r ... is part of the history of the Putignano carnival and its origin is lost in the mists of time, perhaps at the very origins of the carnival, on December 26th 1394.

The story goes that at the end of the parade, the only one held every year on Mardi Gras, around twelve o'clock, "'u ndond'r" was born. Characters of the town with a cheerful temperament group to involve more and more people, until the became very numerous and all in masks, dressed of all kinds, with the mayor on their head, invaded the streets of the town.

Various instruments, pot lids, wooden claps, trumpets and any other item that can cause deafening noises and together with traditional instruments such as drums, guitars, "gnacchere" and anything else animated the procession.

'U ndond'r ...' u ndond'r, pass .. 'u ndond'r, all on the doors to give each other a voice and go down the street and blend into the cheering crowd. Happiness ... real.

These celebrations were prohibited starting from 1954 by the then Mayor in office because provocative strangers sneaked into the procession who in an unsuitable and polite way bordered on almost violent gestures, certainly not funny! It has been restored in recent years as a children's A ndondr

The funeral of the Carnival

Shrove Tuesday is the day that closes the carnival period and therefore full of events to happily celebrate the last remnants.

After the last parade of allegorical floats, recently scheduled in the evening, the procession for the death of the Carnival winds through the streets of the city and the historic center. The dear deceased, lying on a wooden plank, is represented by a papier-mâché pig, whose death symbolizes the end of the period of excesses, revelry and entertainment.