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Everywhere in the street was a mob of Sicilians waving long-handled hammers and at any opportunity bringing them down on the heads of passersby indiscriminately. Victims did their best to respond in kind, often chasing down assailants through the milling crowd. It seemed the entire city had left their homes to face the chilly evening, and it was well after dark and there was no sign of order being restored. Not to be left behind I purchased a hammer from a vendor on the street corner and started whacking.
It was Carnevale after all. The plastic hammers squeaked harmlessly like infants' toys and the narrow streets sounded like they were filled with crickets. Gangs of children, many in costumes, worked their ways through the adults spraying each other with silly string or a white foam that resembled shaving cream. It was all part of a colorful and festive tradition that blends pagan and Catholic traditions.  The term Carnival comes from the Latin "carne" which means meat and "vale" which means farewell. During the period of Lent, the solemn forty days leading up to Easter, Catholics were not supposed to eat meat. Mardi Gras, (Martedi Grasso) the day before Ash Wednesday the first day of Lent, means Fat Tuesday, and for good reason. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we diet. Carnival became a sort of final hurrah before the more reflective religious season.
Acireale, a small city just outside of Catania near Sicily's east coast, is home to "the most beautiful Carnival in all of Sicily." But Acireale is beautiful in its own right. The Baroque architecture, the elegant shops and boutiques along the streets, the cathedral dominating the central piazza, possess all the charm of Sicily and make for a picturesque setting for the celebration. Acireale has been known since antiquity for its thermal baths, tapping into hot waters that take their heat from the same subterranean sources that inspire nearby Mt Etna to spout gases and the occasional lava flow. Many travelers come throughout the year for spa therapy.
Records of the town's Carnival celebration date as far back as the late 16th century though it is believed the tradition is even older. At one time it consisted of a fruit barrage. Participants threw oranges and lemons at each other, but this practice has long since been abandoned. (But can still be seen in the northern Italian city of Ivrea.) By the 17th century a masked figure had become part of the crowd of revelers, carrying a large book from which he pretended to read and mocking local nobility and church personalities. The tradition grew and spread crossing the centuries to present day's practice of donning masks and costumes. The event became officially organized in 1929 and beginning with floral decorations, floats—often allegorical in nature—evolved to become an integral part of the celebration soon after the Second World War. The swinging of plastic hammers is a far older tradition from an ancient Roman fertility rite held in February. (The month’s name itself comes from the Latin februa which was a purification feast which began on February 15.) But in those days the Made in China plastic hammer was a Made in Your Barnyard goat's tail, a symbol of fertility. The object of the game was to chase the local young maidens and give them a tap on the head with the tail thus making them fertile. Perfectly reasonable.
(High school sophomores who did not sleep through the Shakespeare unit on Julius Caesar may remember Mark Antony running a race with a goat tail.)
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