CARNIVAL MASKS
and Costumes

European Carnival Revelers with traditional Comedia dell' Arte costumes and masks.

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Wildmen

Witches

Devil

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Carnival came to the New World from Europe and there met influences from Africa and Asia. A fabulous amalgam resulted and Carnival in the Americas is a wild and wonderful mix of European, African and Asian customs, costumes, styles and elements - and some entirely new traditions.
Carnival (Melton Prior, 1888)

Wire screen masks originating in the Tyrol region of Austria first came to the Americas in the late 1800s. They have been re-worked and transformed by New World aesthetics, but even today some masks still bear a family resemblance.
Wire "White-face" mask
from Puerto Rico

African American "White-face" wire screen maskers from Belize circa 1910

Jamaican mask and costume from Christmas 1836, Kingston, Jamaica.
drawing by Isaac Mendes Belisario

African styles influence contemporary carnival masks.

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These last photos are from a book, Cajun Mardi Gras Masks by Carl Lindahl and Carolyn Ware, published by University Press of Mississippi. Check out their Fall 1997 Catalog for more information. Thanks to Dr. Carl Lindahl for permission to include this and the following two photographs on our Sound & Spirit website.

Tee Mamou Mardi Gras sing their traditional begging song in French as they approach a neighbor's house, 1996.
photo Carl Lindahl

This Needlepoint mask made with varigated yarn and satin lips and felt tongue is an example of the current work of Suson Launey, Iota, Louisiana.
photo Carl Lindahl

Another Cajun Mardi Gras mask by Suson Launey; she wore it in 1996 (see her in the picture two above.) The mouth, cut from a commercial rubber mask was glued and sewn onto a needlepoint mask. The bangs are made of Spanish moss
photo Carl Lindahl

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