THE MASK BEYOND THE SCENE. Proceedings 1st International Symposium Dialogue among cultures. Carnival in the world

he popular traditions, based on disguises, have their origins in ancient festivals, which are very different among them. In these artistic events there is a large opening to human sentiments and thoughts: they are meetings where all peoples converge with their social, ethnic, economic, political and religious differences. In these traditional celebrations the daily life is built on imagination, on games and it allows a continuous enrichment and exchange of cultural knowledge. These urban festivals allow to build forms of art often unique. Among these artistic events we identify the Carnival, a city festival that, in the West, has origin in ancient ceremonies of the Greek and the Roman period. These traditions are survivals of ancient purification rituals. However today the Carnival has become a symbol of meetings that take place in public spaces of the city where you can meet people with different cultural backgrounds. All this allows to enjoy and share traditional and artistic expressions of different cultures in large festivals with interesting diversities.