L’Alpe 3 - Feste d’inverno

Six-monthly magazine of Alpine culture. General winter - In the life of the mountain man the "bad season" was the crucial moment, symbolized by the struggle between the advancing sun and the looming night. Winter holidays: the colors of the calendar - The holidays are an opportunity to show gratitude towards the good forces of Nature, and an attempt to reconcile the forces that are scary. Portfolio: the sacred days of the Alpine winter - Winter is the season marked by the Nativity and the presentation of Jesus in the Temple (Candlemas), with a rich corollary of patron saints. Carnivals in the Alps: a critical reading - Is carnival still alive? Is it a real celebration or just folklore for tourist use? Simple questions that require complex answers. The burial of the carnival - The symbolic ritual of the "death" of the carnival has survived in some villages of the Alps, alongside the "burial" of celibacy. Traditional festivals? They are daughters of modernity - Research conducted in Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta in the last quarter of the twentieth century has debunked the idea of traditional festivals linked to isolation. Baìo: history and fortune of an Alpine carnival - An ancient popular carnival that has been able to reinterpret, over the centuries, the complex organizational forms of the Occitan communities. La Comba Frèide: sequins, sequins and diabolical pranks - The Carnival of the Gran San Bernardo valley was born as a hymn to the sun and has transformed into a spicy and transgressive party. Winter masquerades in the Ladin valleys - Rites and myths survive in the time of tourism and the Ladin Carnival remains an affirmation of the identity of those who live at the foot of the Dolomites. The Trentino Tratomarzo: spring irony - Pre-Christian tradition filled with ironic and irreverent nuances. The Tratomarzo combines the rights of Eros and the awakening of spring. Bagolino: the Carnival behind the scenes - The Bagolino Carnival is still experienced by locals as an intimate and exclusive experience, not transmittable to strangers. The cartographic discovery of Mont Blanc - A taste of the great Chamonix exhibition “La découverte du Mont-Blanc par les cartographes 1515-1925”.