The Carnival at Campomarino, Kalevarit Kemarin, was the farmer’s world celebration, that is people who have always been on fringes of the city.
Already in Roman times, during the Saturnali celebration, it was used to celebrate, in a certain time of year, a sort of carnival. It was a day when the laws of civilian life were distorted, to indulge in extravagances, so that a slave could pretend to be his boss and even eat at the same table.
In recent times, the Carnival begins with the pork killing on January 17th, the day of St. Anthony Abbot, a reason to share the holiday moments with family and neighborhood. On the last Thursday of Carnival, according to an ancient custom, it was prepared the Lej zod, or boiled grain to commemorate the deceased.
As a certain ritual, in Campomarino, families organized parties and dancing nights, not just as an occasion to eat and dance, but also to play together. Among the games there was the Malanno: it was assigned a number to each participant, when the number was called the person had to respond immediately with another number or the face was painted of black. It was also played the sack race. Popular poems were told. It was a tradition that Campomarino’s Carnival was also attended by inhabitants of Termoli.
The Carnival party lasted three days: Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Many inhabitants were dressed as friars with jute sacks, even to recall the memory of Saint Anthony. Typical was the celebration of the last carnival day, it was staged a real theatrical comedy. A clown represented the start of Carnival ant he was brought to triumph throughout the village singing: Carnival because you were dead, the salad was in the garden, the ham was hanging, Carnival you can hang. It came to the train station, pretending to wait for a train. It came Lent, the wife of Carnival, dressed in mourning and crying. The pantomime continued with a kind of process in which Carnival was condemned to death, and after being burned, he was thrown down the wall in Vittorio Veneto square.