Mamoiada Carnival

Famous carnival event in Sardinia also known as the Mamuthones dance. The traditional masks are the Mamuthones and the Issohadores, who make their appearance on the occasion of the feast of Saint Anthony between 16 and 17 January, Carnival Sunday and Shrove Tuesday. The former, dressed in sheepskin, wear a black wooden mask with a suffering or impassive expression. Hanging around their necks, they carry smaller bells. The Issohadores wear a white anthropomorphic mask, a linen shirt, a red jacket, white pants and carry brass and bronze rattles over their shoulder.
Particularly heartfelt is the rite of dressing the Mamuthones, which is performed by two people. After dressing, the Mamuthones parade in groups of twelve, to symbolically represent the months of the year. They are led by Issohadores who parade in groups of eight and dance following steps of considerable difficulty that they learn as children.
The parade of the two masks is a real solemn ceremony, ordered like a procession. The Mamuthones arranged in two parallel rows, flanked by the Issohadores, move very slowly, curved under the weight of the cowbells, at the rhythm set by the Issohadores, giving a shoulder to shake and make all the cowbells ring. The Issohadores move with more agile steps and suddenly throw their rope (sa soha) to capture some of the bystanders: to free themselves, the prisoners will have to offer them a drink.
On Shrove Tuesday, the procession of the mask of Juvanne Martis Sero takes place, carried on a cart by men dressed as' uncles' and 'zias' who mourn her death singing in disconsolation.

The masks
Mamuthones: they wear a velvet or moleskin dress (su belledu) and on top of a sheepskin mastruca (sas peddhes), they wear a black mask made of alder wood or wild pear (sa bisera), with a suffering or impassive expression with pronounced somatic features, a male headdress (on bonette) and on top of a female handkerchief in black or dark red (on muncadore). On their backs they carry cowbells weighing about 30 kilos (in carriga), tied with leather straps, while they wear smaller bells around their necks. The cowbells, until not many years ago, were supplied in a friendly way by shepherds who recovered the most shabby pieces or took them directly from the necks of their beasts. The 'sonazzos' are equipped with 'limbatthas', batacchi built using the femur bones of sheep, goats, donkeys or other animals.
The Issohadores: they wear a linen shirt, a red jacket, white pants, a women's shawl, they carry brass and bronze rattles over their shoulder; some wear a white anthropomorphic mask.

History
Many hypotheses have been put forward about the origins of the Mamoiada carnival. According to some, the rite dates back to the Nuragic Age, founded as a veneration of animals, to protect themselves from evil spirits or to propitiate the harvest. The word Mamuthones has also been traced back to the Greek Maimon, which means 'the one who yearns, who wants to be possessed by the god' (in today's Sardinian language the term means crazy or 'good for nothing'). The Issohadores, on the other hand, derive their name from soha (long rope), originally made of leather, now in wicker, they represent the guardians of the Mamuthones. According to other traditions, the Mamuthones are the Moorish prisoners captured by the Sardinian Issohadores. Another hypothesis is the reference to Dionysian worship.
From an anthropological point of view, like all Barbarian carnivals, it is linked to the cycles of death and rebirth of nature. Archaic exorcization rituals and horrible masks reproduce, in a grotesque key, the human-animal relationship, which underlies the economic-social system of. These masks were recognized as having the power to influence the fate of crops and survival. Therefore, their visit was appreciated, despite its frightening appearance, and to obtain their benevolence, they were offered food and drink.

Update

5/2/2024 - 13:11