{"id":17841,"date":"2019-02-28T11:08:37","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T10:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=17841"},"modified":"2019-02-28T11:08:37","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T10:08:37","slug":"my-colombina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/my-colombina\/","title":{"rendered":"My Colombina"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is the beginning of the last week of Carnevale<\/strong> (Carnival)<\/span>,<\/span> which is known as settimana grassa<\/strong><\/span> (literally: <\/em><\/span>f<\/span>at <\/span>w<\/span><\/em>eek<\/em>).<\/span> This reminds me of <\/span>my first encounter with traditional Italian Carnival characters<\/span>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

At that time I was attending la seconda elementare<\/strong> (the second year of primary school) at the Italian school in Benghazi (Libya), where, being a Muslim country, Carnival isn’t part of the local culture, and so I’d never seen this festival.<\/p>\n

For the last week of Carnival, la nostra maestra<\/strong> (our teacher ) was off sick, so we had una supplente<\/strong> (a supply teacher). To my great amazement the supply teacher was none other than la professoressa Coda<\/strong>, my elder brothers’ Maths teacher! Not just any old primary school teacher, but una vera professoressa<\/strong>, a real teacher of older children!
\nN.B. For the first 5 years of scuola elementare<\/strong> (elementary school), children have un maestro\/una maestra<\/strong> (a teacher). When they move up to le medie<\/strong> (middle school) they have un professore\/una professoressa<\/strong>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Colombina<\/strong>, by Maurice Sand, 1863. <\/span><\/em>Public Domain<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

One morning la maestra<\/strong>, or rather, la professoressa<\/strong>, got us to do a piece of work about carnevale<\/strong>. She gave each of us a sheet of A4 paper with the outline of a strange figure drawn on it, and asked us to decorate it as we liked. Having grown up in Benghazi I wasn’t familiar with the Italian maschere di carnevale<\/strong>, so I asked the prof who my figure was. “E’ Colombina!”<\/strong> (It’s Columbine) she answered, a bit surprised. She then explained that Colombina is the most popular female carnival character, and that she represents a servant who is always lying in order to protect her young mistress.
\nN.B. in the context of carnevale, una maschera is not, as you might think, just a face mask, but the whole character.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

I felt very proud to be given the most important female Italian character to work on, but was also quite daunted because professoressa Coda<\/strong> taught my big brothers, therefore I wanted to fare bella figura<\/strong> (make a good impression on her). So I got to work and took a lot of care. I made Colombina’s dress using carta da zucchero azzurra<\/strong> (blue sugar paper), and for her apron I applied two layers of small squares of carta velina di un rosa pallido<\/strong> (tissue paper in a light pink shade). I glued these along the top, leaving them free to create un effetto a balze<\/strong> (a frill effect). Then I carefully coloured in her face and hands with my crayons. I was very pleased with the result!<\/p>\n

But my star moment came at the end of the morning when my mother came to pick me up. Professoressa Coda<\/strong> showed my mother my ‘masterpiece’ and complimented me by saying that I was molto brava e precisa<\/strong> (very clever and precise). I was triumphant: ero riuscita a fare bella figura con la professoressa Coda!<\/strong> (I’d succeeded in making a good impression on professor Coda!)<\/p>\n

You can find out more about Colombina and other traditional Italian masks in this blog:<\/em><\/span> Maschere di Carnevale<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Today is the beginning of the last week of Carnevale (Carnival), which is known as settimana grassa (literally: fat week). This reminds me of my first encounter with traditional Italian Carnival characters. At that time I was attending la seconda elementare (the second year of primary school) at the Italian school in Benghazi (Libya), where…<\/p>\n

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