The Carnival is ready to start in Venice

From 15 February until 4 March, this beautiful Italian city will be transformed into a sea of masquerades and celebrations, welcoming 2014 Carnival. This year, this amazing event explores connections between people and the environment, as well as the way in which the mysteries of nature can be told through fairy tales.

As recalled by the Australian magazine Italianicious, "masks will take inspiration from traditional European fairy tales; Arabian and Middle-Eastern short stories; the votive symbols of African and Mesoamerican cultures; and Indian, Mongolian and Cathay symbols".

The reason why this approach has been chosen is linked to organizers' idea to push visitors to rediscover, through their costumes and through the masked city, the importance of dreams and fantasy, in a way to remind people how deeply they are related to adults, kids and nature.

2014 Carnival will be the one of fairy tales, marvels and fantastic natures. Accordingly, any corner of Venice is expected to be besieged by the woods, the valleys, the seas, the mountains, the lagoons and the mysterious animal and vegetable creatures inhabiting them.

According to the organizers, "this year's Carnival is globalised because, from its origins, each culture has drawn from its heritage of fantasy and fairy tales as a narrative metaphor of life. Humankind has always felt the need to narrate the mystery of nature through fairy tales. Global cultures, first in the shape of myths, then in an anthropomorphic shape in the world fairy-tale tradition, deploy an endless wealth of symbols and characters to describe the creation and the origin of life, the atmospheric elements, vegetable beings and animal creatures".

The Carnival is expected to become "a gateway between the East and the West, where myths - and fears - of overseas monstrous and surprising creatures were translated into tales, paintings, decorations, to be exported to Europe along the canals and the roads scoured by merchants". On top of all that, an international competition for handcrafted face masks will be organized, too.

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