Venice Carnival
Venice Carnival 2024
Venice Carnival 2025
Venice Carnival programme →Venice Carnival Pictures →
Venice Carnival 2025 Dates
The 2025 Venice Carnival will take place from 22 February to 4 March 2025.Tours Tickets Doge's | St.Mark | Museums | Venice | Islands | Gondola | G.Canal | Taste
The Venice carnival is 95% made by masked and costumed people who are here again this year from all over the world and represent the true magic of the Venice carnival.
The largest concentration of masked and costumed people is in and around Saint Mark's Square, but you'll also meet costumed groups in many other squares in Venice.
Venice Carnival Pictures
Venice Carnival Videos
Carnival in colours People have been wearing masks in Venice for over a thousand years.
The Venice carnival was, therefore, not born out of any desire for tourist entertainment.
A moment of celebration, a moment of fusion between the noblemen and the people of Venice, the Venice carnival also had social importance.
This Venetian carnival quickly became known throughout Europe, and between 20 and 30,000 foreigners, including many kings, participated in the Venice carnival.
This enthusiasm is still very present, and Venice is still packed every year to the brim with all the fans of its carnival.
History of the Venice Carnival
Carnival in colours The origin of the Venice carnival dates back to the year 1094!
In addition, before the present day, wearing a mask was almost mandatory and was worn nearly seven months a year, from October to Ascension Day, with some interruptions.
To learn more, read our pages dedicated to the History of the Venice Carnival or the one concerning the Manufacture of Carnival masks.
Live Happy, Live Hidden
Thus, everyone, from the richest to the poorest, had the opportunity to go out in hiding, and we can also imagine how this served love affairs.Casanova in his memoirs
Carnival in colours
“The only thought that still troubled our joy was that, as the time for masks was over, we didn't know how to get romantic interviews afterwards.”
Giacomo Casanova
George Sand: Lazzi and Flattery
George Sand also relates a mask scene in “Leone Leoni”:“Elegant women covered the docks and entertained themselves at the lazzi masks, which, half-lying on bridge ramps, annoyed passers-by and alternately addressed impertinences and flattery to ugly and pretty women.”
George Sand
Théophile Gautier: The Bariolé Carnival
Carnival in colours For his part, Théophile Gautier wrote these beautiful lines in “Emaux et Camées” about the Venice carnival:
“Venice gets dressed for the ball.
Starry glitter,
Glitters, swirls and babbles
The colourful carnival.”
Théophile Gautier
A bag of confetti
“Tell Daddy how do you do it?
The high-pitched cry of the amused victor, round eyes subjugated: they are on the ground, annihilated:
It was the common destiny of twenty-two confetti in Venice on a Thursday afternoon.
And the tragedy is continuing every two meters, a big dive, a short jump, a high-pitched cry.”
Camille de Longvilliers
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