Questão 461
ID 3172107Disciplina: Língua Inglesa
Assunto: Interpretação de Texto | Text Interpretation
Ano: 2023 Banca: FUNDATEC - Fundação Universidade Empresa de Tecnologia e Ciências Órgão: Instituto Federal Catarinense
Instruction: answer questions 31 to 40 based on the following text. The highlights throughout the text are cited in the questions.
Carnival
- ______ Carnival is ____ festival celebrated in _____countries of Catholic tradition, often
- with public parades of playful, imaginative wagons typically called "floats, masking, jokes and
- feasts”.
- Etymology
- The word carnival comes from the Latin "carnem levare" (=eliminate meat) and
- originally indicated the banquet that was held on the last day of Carnival (Mardi Gras),
- immediately before Lent, the period of fasting and abstinence when Christians would abstain
- _____ meat. The first evidence of the use of the word "carnevale" (or "carnevalo") are the texts
- of minstrel Matazone da Caligano of the late 13th century and writer Giovanni Sercambi around
- 1400.
- Carnival period
- In Catholic countries, traditionally Carnival begins on the Septuagesima Sunday (70
- days to Easter, it was the first of the nine Sundays before the Holy Week in the Gregorian
- calendar), and in the Roman rite ends on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which marks the
- beginning of Lent. The climax is usually from Thursday until Tuesday, the last day of Carnival.
- Being connected with Easter which is a moveable feast, the final dates of Carnival vary each
- year, though in some places it may begin already on 17th January. Since Catholic Easter is on
- the Sunday after the 17first full moon of spring, therefore from 22 March to 25 April, and since
- there are 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter, then in non-leap years the last day of
- Carnival, Mardi Gras, can fall any time within February 3 to March 9.
- In the Ambrosian rite, which is followed in the Archdiocese of Milan and in some
- neighboring dioceses, Lent begins with the first Sunday of Lent, therefore the last day of
- Carnival is on Saturday, four days later than the Mardi Gras in other areas of Italy.
- Carnival in antiquity
- Although present in the Catholic tradition, Carnival has its origins in much older
- celebrations, such as the Greek Dionysian festivals ("Anthesteria") or the Roman "Saturnalia".
- During these ancient rites a temporary dissolution of the social obligations and hierarchies took
- place in favor of chaos, jokes and even debauchery. From a historical and religious point of
- view Carnival represented, therefore, a period of renewal, when chaos replaced the established
- order, but once festive period was over, a new or the old order re-emerged for another cycle
- until the next carnival.
- In Babylon, shortly after the vernal equinox the process of the foundation of the cosmos
- was re-enacted, described with the myth of the struggle of Marduk, the savior-god with Tiamat
- the dragon, which ended with the victory of the former. During these ceremonies a procession
- was held in which the forces of chaos were allegorically represented fighting the recreation of
- the universe, that is the myth of the death and resurrection of Marduk, the savior. In the parade
- there was a ship on wheels where the deities Moon and Sun were carried along a large avenue
- - a symbol of the Zodiac - to the sanctuary of Babylon, symbol of the earth. This period was
- accompanied by an unbridled freedom and a reversal of social order and morality.
- In the Roman world the feast in honor of the Egyptian goddess Isis involved the presence
- of masked groups, as told by Lucius Apuleius in the Metamorphoses (Book XI). Among the
- Romans the end of the old year was represented by a man covered with goat skins, carried in
- procession, hit with sticks and called Mamurius Veturius.
- Carnival is therefore a moment in a mythic cycle, it is the movement of spirits between
- heaven, earth and the underworld. In the spring, when the earth begins to show its power,
- Carnival opens a passage between the earth and the underworld, whose souls must be honored
- and for a short period the living lend them their bodies wearing masks. Masks therefore have
- often an apotropaic meaning, as the wearer takes on the features of the spirit represented.
- In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Medici in Florence organized large masked carts
- called "Trionfi" accompanied by carnival songs and dances one, the "Trionfo di Bacco e Arianna"
- also written by Lorenzo the Magnificent. In Rome under the Popes horse races took place and
- a called the "race of moccoletti" where runners bearing lit candles tried to blow out each other's
- candles.
(Available at: http://www.italyheritage.com/traditions/carnival/2023/04/14/ – text especially adapted for this test).
Select the alternative that defines correctly the bold word “Lent” (line 07):