Nice Carnival

The Nice Carnival: little story...

February is traditionally the carnivals period. During these holidays, under the disguise the madnesses are allowed.

These holidays exist since the antiquity and are a release, winter is long, spring delays showing the end of its nose, it is necessary to come it by enjoying itself, by dancing, by singing and by eating... With the arrival of the Catholicism, the carnival allowed for «good people" to let off stream before beginning the fast, 40 fast days before Easter.

The Nice Carnival is the 1-st in France and certainly at the moment one of the biggest in the world. In 1294, the Count of Provence Charles d' Anjou II already speaks about it as of a big holiday full of enjoyment and beauty, taking place on «Courts" the Mecca of society lifes. But since the arrival of the Count of Provence, symbolic Nice Carnival had respite to evolve for the biggest pleasure of all.

In 1873, an events committee is created, the carnival sets then of the dimension and spectacle makes great. Around Shrove Tuesday gets organized so masquerade, cavalcade and competition of floats parade. Soon an artist from Nice and his son, Alexis Mossa, take another bend in the carnival, it’s he who in 1882 realized the 1-st King Carnival float, and Queen Carnival will arrive only in 1893. For the anecdote Alexis Mossa is the creator of 1-st carnival albums which served of model for New Orleans Carnival!

These last 50 years saw arriving many other animations such as the running of waiter, tasting of socca (local speciality with base of flour of wart) etc. And it’s not finish, the story is going on....

King Carnival and his court.

Since 1882, the Carnival has a King and a court. King Carnival is the emblem of this holiday of two weeks!

It is around his person that gets organized and takes place all the Carnival. To holiday launch it is necessary to wait for first Friday, when the sun goes to bed on the bay of the angels, the signal is given. The King Carnival float puts itself shakes it to join the beautiful Masséna place where it’s waited by the impatient crowd to begin festivities.

In the arrival on the place, the keys of the city are symbolically handed to him. They belong to him for the two weeks of the carnival, that is that the city belongs to him during two weeks and all the madnesses are allowed, it is King Carnival who makes law and which law? The only one, that of the holiday!

That holiday begins!

Around the King and around his court, the floats, the suits and the animations of streets, it is indeed more than 1000 musicians and dancers come from the whole world that animate in the daytime as of night the streets of Nice. The grotesque parade going full swing, the floats which began to be built from October can now go out in broad daylight.

And as every year, the Queen Carnival opens the famous battle of flowers. This battle of flowers is one of events lighthouse of this big holiday. About twenty flowery floats parades in the city, in their edge of the young people throws thousand fresh flowers to the crowd. These beautiful floats ask between 40 and 50 working hours, they are decorated with flowers which result in 90 % of the surroundings of the city. Mimosas, lilies and marguerites are cultivated from October, they are pricked on floats at the last moment to guarantee all the beauty of these.

The King thrones on the Massèna place during all the carnival, and when the last evening of these holidays arrive, King Carnival marches past only in the city, last time because the fate which waits for him is to be burned on an enormous stake. He is sometimes burned in sea or on the shore.

The Nice Carnival in figures...

To give you a small idea of the dimension of this Carnival, look so at these some figures...

-15 days of animations
-1,2 million guests
-20 floats 12 metres in length on 3 metres in width and between 8 and 14 metres height
-30 carnavaliers
-150 big heads cardboard 30 of which dough
-60 troops of artists
-20 tons of confetti
-4000 in 5000 stalks of fresh flowers

And thousand working hours for an exceptional Carnival!