The first evidence of the use of the word "carnival" (also known as "carnevalo") comes from the texts of jester Matazone da Caligano at the end of the XIII century and of the novelist Giovanni Sercambi around 1400. According to the most accredited interpretation, the word 'carnival' derives from the Latin carnem upbeat (“eliminate meat”), as it indicated the banquet held on the last day of Carnival (Fat Tuesday), immediately before the period of abstinence and fasting of Lent.
Alternatively, it has been hypothesized that the term may instead have originated from the Latin expression carne levamen (having the analogous meaning of "elimination of meat"), or from the word carnualia ("country games") or from the locution carrus navalis ( "ship on wheels", as an example of a carnival wagon) or even from currus navalis ("naval procession"), a custom of pagan origin and occasionally survived until the eighteenth century among the celebrations of the period.
It is certain that at the table the Carnival was established since the 400s including the antithesis between the lean, typical of Lent, and the fat, typical of the time not of penance. This dualism manifests itself not only in the madness of the street demonstrations, but above all in the cooking habits.
The Struggle between Carnival and Lent by Pieter Brugel the Elder
A dualism "photographed" masterfully in a famous oil painting on panel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, dated 1559 titled Fight between Carnival and Lentconserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
The teeming view of a town square stages a symbolic combat between Carnival (left half) and Lent (right half). The first is represented as a fat man astride a barrel and surrounded by succulent dishes, while the second is a gaunt and pale woman, who has a shovel with just two herrings as her "spear", in front of the spit with chickens skewered rival. The Carnevale is pushed by two masked men, for the environment, and the Lent is pulled by a friar and a nun.
The characters on the left are intent on eating, drinking and performing burlesque theatrical scenes, typical of the festive carnival period, while on the right sacrifices and suffering are staged. Even the architecture comes into play to identify the two groups: in fact, a tavern can be seen on the left, while a church is represented on the right.
In the center of the painting we see a couple from behind led by a buffoon: the woman has an unlit lantern tied to her waist, which perhaps it alludes to the advance in the dark of the two religious creeds of the time, Catholicism (Catholic Church), symbolized by Lent, and Lutheranism, by Carnival. However, it is a representation that does not take a position, in the general noisy and sarcastic climate. Both carts are in fact driven by madness and vice and only the very poor beggars, scattered here and there with their miserable condition represented with realism, appear as real figures, in the general indifference.
The frappe of 1587 that have come down to us
No one would have guessed that the hugely popular frappe were actually an aristocratic dish, flavored with violets. The text that has come down to us from 1587 leaves you amazed by the extraordinary overlap between the original recipe and the current one, with the exception of the use of lard for cooking.
In Tuscany, the term Berlingaccio meant Shrove Thursday; the same term indicated a pasta made with flour with a little egg that poor families cooked in the oven and did not fry during the Carnival. The verb "berlingare" according to the indications of the Accademia della Crusca means to chat. In current Italian the habit of calling them "chiacchiere" derives from the Bolognese dialect since the frappe were also called "sfrappole" and "cuntar del sfrappel" means "to tell lies".
The technique for producing the pastry, initially practiced in the kitchens of the most well-to-do residences, became very popular as many pasta-based dishes are prepared starting from the pastry. The berlingacci were therefore a poor version of the aristocratic frappe ed a text of 1752 confirms it
Castagnole are instead described for the first time by Artusi with his recipe 213. On this occasion, Artusi himself specifies that the recipe for castagnole is a "special dish in Romagna, especially during Carnival".
From this it is shown that the names of the Carnival sweets and the method of preparation have very ancient origins and have come down to us almost unchanged over the centuries.
