{"id":826,"date":"2023-02-07T09:45:45","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T09:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.frenchalacarte.fr\/?p=826"},"modified":"2023-03-05T19:22:17","modified_gmt":"2023-03-05T19:22:17","slug":"carnaval-mardi-gras-careme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frenchalacarte.fr\/en\/2023\/02\/07\/carnaval-mardi-gras-careme\/","title":{"rendered":"Carnaval, Mardi gras, Car\u00eame"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mardi gras<\/em> (Shrove Tuesday, literally Fat Tuesday) is the last day before C<\/em>ar\u00ea<\/em>me<\/em> (Lent) which starts on Mercredi des Cendres<\/em> (Ash Wednesday). On that day, people are supposed to eat rich food before fasting, a religious ritual\u00a0for Lent. Pancakes and pancake races are very popular on ma<\/em>rdi gras<\/em> in the UK. French people have their pancake tradition on la Chandeleur<\/em>, the 2nd of February. The usual buns for\u00a0Mardi gras<\/em>, and the carnaval<\/em> (carnival) season are:\u00a0beignets, bugnes, merveilles\u00a0and\u00a0oreilletes<\/em>. Almost each region has its own version of these fried and sugary treats. Besides food, another tradition during\u00a0carnaval time is\u00a0the parades. The most famous ones in France are le carnaval de Nice, le carnaval de Dunkerque and le carnaval v\u00e9nitien d’Annecy<\/em>. Everywhere cities, clubs and\u00a0schools organise parades exhibiting masks, flowers, floats, flowers, colours, music, dances and balls.<\/p>\n

Sayings<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Tomber \/ arriver comme mars en Car\u00eame.
\n<\/em>Literally: to happen as Lent in\u00a0March. To happen for sure.
\nConsidering that Easter usually falls more or less in April, Car\u00ea<\/em>me<\/em> (Lenten) definitely takes place in March. Mardi gras<\/em> though, which is 40 days before Easter, falls more often in February.<\/p>\n

Avoir une face de Car\u00eame.
\n<\/em>Literally: to have a Lent face; to look pale. Honestly, how can you expect to look after cutting out\u00a0nourishing\u00a0food for days?<\/p>\n

Grammar:\u00a0<\/strong>Nouns ending in\u00a0-al, such as carnaval, bal…<\/em>\u2665<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nouns ending in\u00a0-al\u00a0<\/em>don\u2019t follow the usual rule when becoming plural. Instead of that\u00a0s<\/em>\u00a0(les f\u00eates<\/em>), they form their\u00a0plural in<\/strong>\u00a0-aux.\u00a0<\/strong>
\nEx:\u00a0Un cheval, des chevaux; un journal, des journaux\u2026
\n<\/em>Exceptions:\u00a0\u00a0aval, bal, carnaval, chacal, corral, final, festival, r\u00e9cital, r\u00e9gal.
\nun carnaval color\u00e9, des\u00a0carnavals\u00a0<\/strong>color\u00e9s, un bal populaire ; des\u00a0bals\u00a0<\/strong>populaires; un festival d\u2019\u00e9t\u00e9,\u00a0des festivals<\/strong>\u00a0d\u2019\u00e9t\u00e9\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

NB: the same rule applies to the words ending in\u00a0-eau<\/strong>:\u00a0un <\/em>drapeau<\/a>\u00a0;\u00a0des\u00a0drapeaux<\/strong>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Poetry:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The carnival of Venice is one of the most famous. This Italian city creates a very scpecial atmosphere all year round, but the short days in March, the masks, the balls, the palaces, the gondolas, the myths and history related to Venice, contribute to make the carnival festival in Venice a very special experience. French writer and poet, Th\u00e9ophile Gautier (1811-1872) comes to the topic in his\u00a0Variations sur le Carnaval De Venise:<\/em><\/p>\n

Venise pour le bal s’habille.<\/em>
\n De paillettes tout \u00e9toil\u00e9,<\/em>
\n Scintille, fourmille et babille<\/em>
\n Le carnaval bariol\u00e9.<\/em><\/p>\n

Arlequin, n\u00e8gre par son masque,<\/em>
\n Serpent par ses mille couleurs,<\/em>
\n Rosse d’une note fantasque<\/em>
\n Cassandre son souffre-douleurs.<\/em><\/p>\n

Battant de l’aile avec sa manche<\/em>
\n Comme un pingouin sur un \u00e9cueil,<\/em>
\n Le blanc Pierrot, par une blanche,<\/em>
\n Passe la t\u00eate et cligne l’oeil.<\/em><\/p>\n

Le Docteur bolonais rab\u00e2che<\/em>
\n Avec la basse aux sons tra\u00een\u00e9s;<\/em>
\n Polichinelle, qui se f\u00e2che,<\/em>
\n Se trouve une croche pour nez.<\/em><\/p>\n

Heurtant Trivelin qui se mouche<\/em>
\n Avec un trille extravagant,<\/em>
\n A Colombine Scaramouche<\/em>
\n Rend son \u00e9ventail ou son gant.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sur une cadence se glisse<\/em>
\n Un domino ne laissant voir<\/em>
\n Qu’un malin regard en coulisse<\/em>
\n Aux paupi\u00e8res de satin noir.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ah! fine barbe de dentelle,<\/em>
\n Que fait voler un souffle pur,<\/em>
\n Cet arp\u00e8ge m’a dit : C’est elle !<\/em>
\n Malgr\u00e9 tes r\u00e9seaux, j’en suis s\u00fbr,<\/em><\/p>\n

Et j’ai reconnu, rose et fra\u00eeche,<\/em>
\n Sous l’affreux profil de carton,<\/em>
\n Sa l\u00e8vre au fin duvet de p\u00eache,<\/em>
\n Et la mouche de son menton.\u00a0<\/em>
\n
\nTh\u00e9ophile Gautier – \u00c9maux et Cam\u00e9es<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Beautiful carnival in Venice, inviting characters of the\u00a0Commedia dell’arte:\u00a0Arlequin, Cassandre, Pirrot, le Docteur, Polichinelle, Trivelin, Colombine and Scaramouche. The\u00a0Commedia dell’arte started to be popular in XVIth century in Italy, when actors started to wear masks on stage (inspired by the ancient carnival celebrations) and decided to be recognised as professionals, organised in troupes. They were used to mixing all kinds of dialects and variations of the language, in order to be understood everywhere and by everyone in Italy.\u00a0The\u00a0Commedia dell’arte was very popular in France, especially in the XVIIth century when it inspired most of the famous playwrights but a bit forgotten in XXth century, when Gautier pays tribute to it. Writing\u00a0it in a poem, Gautier offers a stage to italian theater tradition in his french poetry modernity, mixing genres and cultural traditions; imitating the\u00a0Commedia dell’arte’s way of functioning. Poetry wears the\u00a0theater mask. Could there be a better definition of carnival?<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mardi gras (Shrove Tuesday, literally Fat Tuesday) is the last day before Car\u00eame (Lent) which starts on Mercredi des Cendres (Ash Wednesday). On that day, people are supposed to eat rich food before fasting, a religious ritual\u00a0for Lent. Pancakes and pancake races are very popular on mardi gras in the UK. French people have their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,123,56],"tags":[97,98,99,102,103],"class_list":["post-826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lets-celebrate","category-posts-in-english","category-traditions","tag-careme","tag-carnaval","tag-carnival","tag-lente","tag-mardi-gras"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/frenchalacarte.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/frenchalacarte.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/frenchalacarte.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchalacarte.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchalacarte.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/frenchalacarte.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7229,"href":"https:\/\/frenchalacarte.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826\/revisions\/7229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/frenchalacarte.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchalacarte.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchalacarte.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}