Salbertrand and its Carnival

The Carnival arrives in the window of the Hotel Dieu, in the center of the village of Salbertrand, with traditional wooden masks, a small straw puppet, and the plow, symbols and witnesses of a celebration of ancient origin that has been passed down through generations while still contaminating and opening itself to modernity.

The cheerful and colorful setup created in the window by the Ecomuseum Colombano Romean with the collaboration and contribution of Dario and Rosalba Milesi pays homage to the Carnavà du Guéini, or the Carnival of the Salbertrandese people, who have always been nicknamed Guéini (from the Occitan verb arguéinā: to stir) meaning people who know how to "celebrate properly."

The spirit with which the Carnival is celebrated adheres to this nickname and keeps alive, even today, some traditions that have survived over time. These include the distribution of turtiòu house to house, the reading of the will, and the burning of Carnival.

The turtiòu, which are fritters made from flour, milk, and water, cooked on a wood stove set up on a cart, are distributed (once on a special wooden cutting board with a handle) during the parade on the last Sunday of Carnival, while on the evening of Fat Tuesday, the second parade takes place with ’l Carnavà represented by a large straw puppet, made to jump to the sound of music, along the street, to the Station, where one can witness the reading of the will followed by the burning of Carnival in the square. The Müsiccä is an important component of the celebration intertwined with the modern stereo sounds of the floats. It is formed by members of the local music band who honor the celebration with traditional notes accompanying the parades, the puppet dance, the reading of the will, and the final burning of Carnival.

Once, the celebration was longer: it began after Epiphany, characterized by the Wednesday of turtiòu, continued on Fat Thursday with the plowing of snow, and ended on Fat Tuesday with the bonfire followed by the arrival at midnight of Lent (Cařèimä), personified by a figure dressed in pale yellow-white who appeared to draw the curtain on Carnival. Among the rites remembered in the window of the Hotel Dieu, we find the plow representing the plowing of snow: an act symbolizing the evolutionary process of the symbolic fertilization of the earth, and the masks, called vizajeřa, made of wood by the sculptors of Istuara ‘d bo which represent, today as in the past, the forces and spirits tasked with protecting people and animals from any malevolent presences. The masks would visit homes, sometimes dancing with women or touching the inhabitants but usually did not speak and expressed themselves with gestures.

Propitious rites, characters, gestures, and messages are imprinted in the memory of the village's elders and, thanks to in-depth anthropological research conducted by researcher Lia Zola, they have been narrated and published in the Cahier n°6 of the Ecomuseum (2009). The Cahier titled "'l carnavà du Guéini" represents a precious document dedicated to this cyclical festive time that marks the return of light after the darkness of winter and celebrates the awakening of nature. The task of renewing ceremonies and rites was, and still is today, entrusted by the community to the "young people" who represent the true wealth of a village.

To learn more, it is recommended to watch the documentary video published during the sad pandemic period and premiered on Fat Tuesday evening of 2021.