The Carnival in Venice was conceived in 1094, when for the fist time is mentioned the nationwide celebrations just before the Easter lent. The specialists say that the carnival traditions are much deeper and date back to Roman times when people celebrated the coming of spring. Venetian rulers and the wealthy people decided to follow their Roman predecessors and resolve once a year by masquerades to be erased the boundaries between the rich and the poor people and the poorest have the opportunity concealed behind masks, to penetrate the ranks of the rich. Originally the carnival had been quite long, from the first Sunday of October to Epiphany. Then it was settled in the 10 days before Easter lent, but the fever in masks and costumes preparation keeps the people minds all year. Over the centuries among the most memorable carnival is the one from 27th of February 1679 when the duke of Mantua appeared on the carnival procession with train of Indians, Turks and Tatars. During the gorge they fought with six mythical monsters and having them killed. After that they started to dance typical ethnic dances, making in this way the unprecedented spectacle of the Venetians. After the collapse of the Venetian Republic in the late XVIII century and early XIX century, the Frenchmen and the Austrians did not approve the carnival. The carnival tradition was officially revived in Venice in 1979 and since then it remained in the way of celebrations lasting 11 days.
The ritual Flight of Angels is a ceremony without which the Venetian carnival would not be a real carnival. It is always composed on the first Sunday of the carnival, just at noon local time on the San Marco Square. During this ceremony, a prominent figure, disguised as an angel descends on the specially installed ropes from the Venetian bell tower to the arcades of the Palace of the ancient rulers of Venice, the doges, to the San Marco Square. At the end of his flight this so-called angel landed in the hands of a man disguised as doge, who stands to simple woman, disguised as his wife. Then the “doge” and “his wife” and the angel opened the traditional Carnival of the Doges. The ritual of the angel descent from the bell tower dating from the Venetian Republic. In the XX century, after the formal restoration of the carnival, from the bell tower descent no human but mechanical doll or bird. A hundred year later, the old tradition was renewed and again a human descend from the bell tower. Usually this is an Italian actress or model.
