Image by renatela via FlickrMolise is a small region located in central Italy on the Adriatic Sea. Carnevale in this region tends to have somber aspects, arguably more so than in much of the rest of Italy. We'll do things a little different here than in most of our other articles of this series. We will focus on the most significant, often the darkest aspect of Carnevale as held in several Molise villages and small towns.
Castelnuovo del Volturno is a village of some 250 inhabitants. Carnevale here centers around a man in a deer costume, dressed in rough skins whose face is covered in black and sports horns. Deer Man struggles against a masked man known as "Pulcinella" and escapes looking for food. He is caught by an angry hunter who beats him. In another version Deer Man wreaks havoc among the cattle until he is stopped by the saintly Friar Martin. He is then resurrected, an act that purifies him and the entire community whose sins he symbolizes. The villages of Carpinone, Forli del Sannio, and Roccasicura put celebrate Carnevale by putting on trail a carnival puppet known as "Fantoccio". He is found guilty and burnt at the stake. In the village of Sant'Agapito his smouldering corpse is tossed off a cliff.
