CARNIVAL, the last three days preceding Lent, which in Roman Catholic countries are given up to feasting and merry making. Anciently the carnival began on the morrow of Epiphany (Jan. 7) and lasted till Shrove Tuesday. It probably represents the Roman Saturnalia. Rome has ever been the headquarters of carnival, and though some popes made efforts to stem the tide of Bacchanalian revelry, many of the others were great patrons and promoters of carnival keeping; notably Paul II., who insti tuted a great variety of races. Under Julius III. we have long and vivid accounts of bull-baits in the Forum. Even the austere and rigid Paul IV. (d. 1559) used to keep carnival by inviting all the Sacred College to dine with him. Sixtus V. set himself to the restraint of excesses and the repression of law lessness. For the warning of offenders he set up gibbets in conspicuous places.
The later popes mostly restricted the carnival to the last six or seven days before Ash Wednesday. The municipal author ities of the city now allow ten days. The carnival sports at Rome anciently consisted of ( I) the races in the Corso (hence its present name, formerly Via Lata) ; the spectacular pageant of the Agona; (3) that of the Testaccio.
Of other Italian cities, Venice used to be the principal home, after Rome, of carnival. To-day Turin, Milan, Florence, Naples, all put forth competing programmes. In old times Florence was conspicuous for the licentiousness of its carnival. The carnival in Spain lasts four days, including Ash Wednesday. In France the merry-making is restricted almost entirely to Shrove Tuesday (mardi gras) and to the MI-CAREME, Thursday of the third week in Lent.