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I recently discovered that in the Middle Ages, actors who played saints and angels in plays didn't wear masks, but demons did. Commedia dell'arte originated in religious ceremonies, based on the biblical principle that God created humankind in his image and likeness, the saints and angels, closest to God, showed their faces, while demons, distant from God, wore masks. These ceremonies always depicted the clean and powerful angels defeating and humiliating the demons, who were dirty and wore torn clothes. What was certainly not planned by the Catholic Church is that, over time, the common people, plebeians who spent their days working in the sun and couldn't always afford to wear clean, new clothes like their angelic noble oppressors, began to recognize themselves much more in the demons. This backfired even more when the nobles themselves began to wear masks during Carnival for the fun, which made them indistinguishable from the commoners.

>The origins of the Carnevale di Venezia stretch back to the Middle Ages, though its first official recognition by the Venetian Senate dates to 1296, when Carnival was declared a public festival. The celebration, however, has even deeper roots in Roman Saturnalian traditions, where festivals of masked revelry and social inversion allowed for a temporary suspension of class hierarchies and social norms

>The term Carnevale is derived from the Latin phrase "carne levare" or "carne vale", meaning "farewell to meat." This refers to the period leading up to Lent, the 40-day season of fasting and penance in the Christian liturgical calendar. During Lent, Catholics were historically required to abstain from eating meat, dairy, and other rich foods as a form of self-discipline and preparation for Easter. Carnival, therefore, was the last chance to indulge—a final, joyous feast before the austerity of Lent