The carnival of Ottana, a thousand-year celebration

In the Sardinian hinterland we can find Ottana, a small town in the heart of Barbagia. This is a place where you can breathe the most ancestral scents of the island: the vegetation is lush and green, while the fauna abounds, also and above all due to the proximity to the Tirso river. The Ottana area has been inhabited since ancient times, as evidenced by the ancient megalithic constructions that dot the territory: the megalithic wall of Monti Nieddu, the nuraghe of Marasorighes and the nuraghe of Talinos. Traces of millenary culture survive here in a specific event: the Ottana carnival. The origin of the celebration probably derives from ancient propitiatory and apotropaic rites. The current course of the festival sees the choreography of three main masks. The first is “su Boe”, a mask in wild pear and bovine features; who impersonates him also wears sheepskin and a set of cowbells weighing up to thirty kilograms. During the parade Su Boe is tamed by the Merdule, a cowherd covered in sheep fur and with a grotesquely deformed mask with the features of an elderly man. The Merdule calms the Boes with the use of a leather rope (sa Soca) and with a stick (su Matzuccu). The third mask of the carnival is “sa Filonzana”, an old woman covered by a black mask and women's clothing (shawls and petticoats). He carries a spool of wool with him and weaves a symbolic 'thread of life'. There is therefore a clear reference to the moire, ancient figures of the Greek myth. The Ottana Carnival is one of the oldest folkloristic events in the world and captures anyone who attends it with its extraordinary and suggestive ancestral force.