Ladin Carnival

In Val di Fassa, Carnival is the most evocative and popular event in the Ladin folk and cultural tradition. It is an appointment that lives and is renewed every year through the "mascherèdes", which find their origin in burlesque and mocking representations of characters belonging to the ancient Fassa daily life, and the artistic achievements of the "faceres". The wooden masks, obtained from half a stone pine trunk, are carved with extreme skill by local sculptors, externally and internally, so that they adhere to the face of the wearer, and then decorated. The carnival rites are led by the "guiding" masks: "Laché", "Bufons" and "Marascons", who wear cheerful clothes, headgear adorned with flowers, multicoloured ribbons, cowbells and, the inevitable, "facera".

Throughout the entire carnival period (from 17 January, the feast day of the patron saint, Saint Anthony, in Alba, until Mardi Gras, 13 February), from Penìa di Canazei to Moena, you can attend theatre shows, street festivals, races on the snow with skis and sledges ("le lese da corni" in Ladin), parades of floats, masked balls and festivals.

The detailed programme of Carnival events will be available from January.