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January 28, 2024

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KC

Having read in old travel books about what it was like to be in Italy during Carnival, it sounds like one of those things that is not really my jam (particularly being pelted with confetti, which is not like our confetti).

(from one of the Katy books by Susan Coolidge):
"Katy realized one of the "moments" for which she had come to Europe when she stood for the first time on the balcony overhanging the Corso, which Mrs. Ashe had hired in company with some acquaintances made at the hotel, and looked down at the ebb and surge of the just-begun Carnival. The narrow street seemed humming with people of all sorts and conditions. Some were masked; some were not. There were ladies and gentlemen in fashionable clothes, peasants in the gayest costumes, surprised-looking tourists in tall hats and linen dusters, harlequins, clowns, devils, nuns, dominoes of every color,—red, white, blue, black; while above, the balconies bloomed like a rose-garden with pretty faces framed in lace veils or picturesque hats. Flowers were everywhere, wreathed along the house-fronts, tied to the horses' ears, in ladies' hands and gentlemen's button-holes, while venders went up and down the street bearing great trays of violets and carnations and camellias for sale. The air was full of cries and laughter, and the shrill calls of merchants advertising their wares,—candy, fruit, birds, lanterns, and confetti, the latter being merely lumps of lime, large or small, with a pea or a bean embedded in each lump to give it weight. Boxes full of this unpleasant confection were suspended in front of each balcony, with tin scoops to use in ladling it out and flinging it about. Everybody wore or carried a wire mask as protection against this white, incessant shower; and before long the air became full of a fine dust which hung above the Corso like a mist, and filled the eyes and noses and clothes of all present with irritating particles."

The costumes sound fun, but add the lime dust and... no, although presumably they no longer use lime confetti? Maybe? But still, consider how much garbage it would produce and how much sheer noise it would be... (also particularly do not want to be around during Holi)

That said, a longer Season Of Indulgent Pancakes would be welcome...

theQueen

KC - that is fascinating! It sent me to Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confetti#Etymology_and_Italian_confetti
Read on for the Jordan almonds confetti connection.

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