Today, Sunday, Madrid says goodbye to its Carnivals in a big way, as it could not be less, celebrating that strange, although happy pairing, between Don Carnal (Mr. Carnal) and Doña Cuaresma (Mrs. Lent), which, for centuries, has taken various forms, even reaching, in certain historical periods, to be prohibited, but which, deep down, comes to represent the life cycle of a people, which is comforted and always surrenders to its old traditions.
That joie de vivre, that particular imitation of the so-called Roman Saturnalia or the medieval 'festivals of Fools', where, for a while, the people were allowed to indulge in excesses -as you can see, the expression 'opium of o for the people', comes from afar- counts, today, perhaps, with something that makes Madrid more than just another European capital of well-being: a capital, without any doubt, Multicultural.
This festival, which in some way says goodbye to the severity of winter, represented by that austere and severe image of Doña Cuaresma (Mrs. Lent), anticipates and prepares to welcome the joy and debauchery of spring, which finds its faithful representative, in the indolent, cheeky figure and of course, not without mischief, of that modern Bacchus, known as Don Carnal (Mr. Carnal).
It is also no coincidence that, once the festive rites have finished in traditional places, such as the San Isidro meadow and its burial of the sardine, it is precisely in the heart of Madrid, where the joy of this festivity says goodbye, in a gesture of detached animosity, shaking off the cold, gray days of winter.
I am referring to that recently proclaimed Passage of the Light, by UNESCO, whose heart is located in the popular Paseo del Prado, whose surroundings form what is possibly the most representative Culturality of Madrid, with its Prado Museum, the Thyssen-Museo Bornemisza, the Gothic church of the old convent of San Jerónimo el Real and that magical, spectacular and pleasant lung, which is always the Retiro Park.
Nor is it a coincidence that Madrid, welcoming an exorbitant population of Latin American origin, fully integrated, sees in its joy, its culture and its customs, that note of happy picturesqueness, which, as it ventured at the beginning, not only unites us, but also enriches us and seduces us with its peculiar charm and encourages us to continue being a more complete and integrated society, which also makes us what we have been for years on our own merit: a quality destination.
Today, the Carnivals say goodbye to us. But, unlike the pain that farewells generally produce, in Madrid, after all, we cannot help but think that it is, precisely, from now on, when the Fiesta truly begins.
So, we do not feel sadness for the departure of Doña Cuaresma and Don Carnal. Instead, we feel joyously optimistic, knowing, on the eve of spring, that the good stuff is really about to come.
NOTICE: Both the text and the photographs that accompany it, as well as the video that illustrates it, are my exclusive intellectual property and, therefore, are subject to my Copyright.
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