CARNIVAL. The Christian festival called Carnival takes place on Shrove Tuesday, the eve of Ash Wednesday. In its widest sense, however, the Carnival period is of much longer duration, beginning right after Christmas, the New Year, or the Feast of Epiphany, depending on the region.

The etymological roots of the name Carnival may be the Latin caro ("meat") and levara ("to remove, to take away"), which in vulgar Latin became carne levamen, and afterward carne vale. Some etymologists also link it to carnis levamen, "the pleasure of meat," the farewell to which is celebrated in the festivities that come immediately before the prohibitions of Lent. Another hypothesis links it etymologically to the carrus navalis, the horse-drawn, boat-shaped carriage that was paraded in Roman festivals in honor of Saturn, carrying men and women who, in fancy dress and wearing masks, sang obscene songs.

If it is problematic to identify...