Overview
"Carnaval, Carnival, Fasnacht, Entroido - the annual pre-Lenten festival most people in the United States know as Mardi Gras - is celebrated in cities and rural villages throughout Europe and the Americas. With more than 300 photographs, this book offers an international look at Carnival in New Orleans and Basile, Louisiana; Laza, Spain; rural Bulgaria; Venice, Italy; Basel, Switzerland; Tlaxcala, Mexico; Oruro, Bolivia; Recife and Olinda, Brazil; Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago; and Port-au-Prince, Haiti." Whatever deeper religious or civic significance Carnival may hold for its participants, it is always a time of play, conviviality, and fantasy, a time when alternatives to the status quo can be imagined and people can feel unleashed from everyday restraints. This book is a joyous celebration of this many-faceted festival and a tribute to those who have kept their Carnival traditions alive.Synopsis
In this companion volume to the New Mexico's Museum of International Folk Art exhibit of the same name, held from November 2004 to August 2005, Mauldin (curator of Latin American folk art at the museum) pairs 300 color photographs with eleven essays exploring carnival festivities in the United States, Spain, Bulgaria, Italy, Switzerland, Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, and Haiti. In the essays, professors of art, culture, anthropology, and history describe the practices of Carnival for each location, including descriptions of preparations and the festivities themselves, while simultaneously exploring the cultural significance of the particular manifestations of the festival around the world. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Library Journal
Most Americans are familiar with Carnival, the wild celebration preceding the observance of Lent, through New Orleans's Mardi Gras. This festival has roots in pre-Christian observances in many locations, but the traditions have been adapted over the centuries and heavily seasoned with local flavor. This companion book to an exhibit at the Museum of International Folk Art in Sante Fe covers 11 locations in Europe and the Americas. The study of each breaks down the history of the location, the local celebration, and key features of the festivities, such as masking, costumes, displays, and ritual. Mauldin (Masks of Mexico), the exhibit coordinator and curator of Latin American folk art, has pulled together an interesting array of Carnival experiences. The illustrations are bright but inconsistent in quality. The contributors, all specialists and scholars, follow the same format for each location, but different writing styles tend to interrupt the cohesiveness. Nevertheless, this book is a colorful and interesting comparison of Carnival and is unique in its coverage. Recommended for larger public libraries and academic libraries.-Karen Ellis, Taylor P.L., TX Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.