Next Tuesday will be Mardi Gras, which means that this coming Friday will be "Venardi Gnocolàr" (Gnocchi Friday)!!
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| Papà del Gnoco in Verona |
The most important mask of Verona Carnival ("
Bacanal del Gnoco" in Verona dialect) is certainly the Papà del Gnoco (Gnoco’s Dad), that is elected in the full Piazza San Zeno every year after a real electoral campaign. The person who is elected must be well respected among the population: wearing the Sire’s clothes is a really serious ritual. The costume that he'll wear must be sewn by a tailor. It’s a ivory-color dress where some scraps of red cloth are sewn on, with a beautiful mantle and a huge hat. The tick white beard is really characteristic, too, made of buffalo wool, and with long and straight hair. The right hand holds a big fork where a huge "
gnocco" is stuck in.
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| Carnival parade in Verona |
To wear the costume Papà del Gnoco spends at least half an hour, and during the rite he’s helped by a marshal. And if you want to participate to the next Papà elections you must know that to be eligible, besides being from Verona, you also have to be size XXXL!
The Papà del Gnoco distributes gnocos for free to the people during his parade, and he’s fallowed by Macaroni, dressed up too, that have been his supporters during the campaign for his election.
