Travel guide

are the references to the building plans typical of the different towns
around the Island. The exhibition spreads over 18 halls on about 1000
msq. The museum collections include over 7000 finds: textile and wooden
handiwork, musical instruments of the oral tradition, working and
domestic tools, garments and jewels dating to the period between the end
of the XIX and the mid-XX century. At Carnival, Sardinia forcibly expresses
its most ancient traditions, which sometimes date back to most ancient
times. In Mamoiada, the Mamuthones and Issohadores go on parade: the
former wearing a black wooden mask, a black sheep fleece and a
resounding cluster of bells; the latter wearing a jacket of red cloth and a
waistband with bronze and brass bells, and carrying sa soha, a cord made
of rush. There are strong references to the celebration of the victory of the
peasants of Barbagia (the issohadores) over the Saracen invaders captured
and paraded around (the mamuthones) or even to the ancestral rituals of
fertility, attributable to primeval cults spread all over the Mediterranean
region. The parade of Samugheo features some analogies with the
Barbagian one: the main characters are the Mamutzones, covered in goat
fleece with tall headpieces made of cork over which large horns stick out,
a black face and carrying two pairs of large bells hanging on the body;
s’Urtzu, an anthropomorphic goat with a fleece of black goat; su
Omadore, peasant image with a long black jacket. Here, too, are strong
references to the ancient Dionysian cults: the mamutzones, followers of
Dionysus, dance around s’urtzu, which embodies the worshipped god,
whereas su omadore plagues it until its sacrifice. In Bosa, the Karrasegare
is an important occasion of community cohesion. In the last days collective
hysteria mounts around Gioldzi. Represented by a huge puppet stuffed
with straw and cloths, it is the symbol of the dying Carnival. It is its fate, in
the evening of the Mardi Gras, to burn at the stake. The ritual is foretold,
during the day, by the chorus of the s’attittadora and their mourning
marks. Ovodda offers its most famous and frisky aspect on an unusual
date: Ash Wednesday. The inhabitants flock down the streets wearing old
clothes and with their face blackened with soot, a compulsory requirement
even for the tourists attending the celebrations. In the evening, following a
day of cheerfulness with offers of cheese, sausages, doughnuts and good
wine, it is the time for the trial to the tyrant Don Conte, represented by a
huge puppet of devastating ugliness, gross and obscene. Its fate is
decided: burnt at the stake. Finally Tempio Pausania, where a Carnival
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