Putignano - Puglia - Italy - Unpublished stories related to the Putignano Carnival. Facts, testimonies or legends to know

The Balì and the Carnival of Putignano

The Carnival period is a period of excesses and manifestations of thought very close to the anarchist one by the people. Here some types of exaggerated celebrations and celebrations are no longer shared by some subjects belonging to categories of power or social relevance.

This is the case of the letter of May 21, 1808, shown in the photo, written by the lawyer of Naples, in which the same declares that he does not approve of having led to the excess of character masks the joy for the victory of the case against the Balì.

Evil spirits | The period of Carnival in the cloistered convents

This passage, taken up like the others by the unpublished manuscript memoirs of the lawyer Giovanni Casulli (1832-1911) and linked to the Carnival period, is disturbing and equally significant at least for some reasons:

it is proof that even as far back as 1729 the Carnival in Putignano was already experienced as a particularly important event
gives an eloquent testimony of what was the atmosphere that reigned in those times within the clauses in the convents present on Putignano
it shows how the nuns lived the carnival period with anxiety and suffering for all the so-called sins of the world.

when the Carnival was in the historic center of Putignano

After the carnival of Venice, the carnival of Putignano is one of the oldest in Europe, and has its roots in the Middle Ages. Over the years its success has been so remarkable that it was even established in 2006, a version summer. As the Harlequin reminds us of Venice and the Pulcinella reminds us of Naples, Putignano is also represented by his typical mask, the Farinella.