The Bagolino festivals is celebrated on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. It is famous throughout north Italy for its music, songs, and dances which fill the village from morning to night following a ritual that has remained unchanged for centuries. Typical are the costumes of “Carnevale Bagòs”: dancers’ and players’ ones are black with a large red velvet hat decorated with ribbons and family jewels, the other participants wear old farming clothes with long skirts, hand-woven shawls and wooden clogs. Faces are covered (deriving from the original spirit of carnival which celebrated the rebirth of the land and life) so that not even the sex of the person could be recognised.

For more info: http://www.bagolinoinfo.it/

Photo: Riccardo Palazzani