Carnevale In Sardinia

Carnevale in the Barbagia Villages
Another different but amazing Carnival is held in some Barbagia Villages where Carnevale is influenced by ancient cult and rites. The masks in Barbagia probably recall ancient Dyonisus rituals. The main principle of Carnival is based on the world upside down and in Barbagia men become animals. Shepherds turn into their bulls or sheep.

Carnevale in Mamoiada
The most famous masks parade takes place in Mamoiada. They are called Is Mamuthones. They appear first on the night of Sant'Antonio Abate on January 17. During that night, in the different quarters of the village, several bonfires are lit and the Mamuthones come round to bless all of them. The Mamuthones are men who are transformed into animals and wear sheep skins and cow bells hanging on the shoulder. They also wear a grotesque wooden mask and walk rhythmically. When they leap the sound of their cow bells casts away the evil spirit.
They are flanked by the Issocadores, people wearing a sort of Spanish costume with a woman's shawl wrapped around their waist. They hold a lasso and catch people while they watch the parade of the Mamuthones.

Carnevale in Orotelli
Another village in Barbagia is Orotelli and they have another mask called Sos Thurpos (it means the blind people, or the creepers). They wear no mask but their faces are painted in black with soot and they are hidden by a long hood. They're dressed in a velvet black suit with leather hand-made boots and a long black rough wool coat (su gabbanu) used by the shepherds in winter. Across the shoulder they have cow bells to ward off the evil spirits. They parade in Orotelli.
Sos Thurpos includes a man who represents Su Thurpu Voinarzu (il contadino, the peasant) who has to govern the stubborn people who are the Thurpos Boes (i buoi, the bulls); then there are the Thurpos called seminatori ( Sowers) who throw grain along the road; Su Thurpu Vrailarzu (il fabbro, the blacksmith) who shoes the bull represented by Su Thurpu Boe, and then there is Su Thurpu who lights a fire with a steel, flint-stone and holds a little bull horn full of dry freula ( a plant from Sardinia) used to start the fire.

More Barbagia Carnival Masks
Another mask in Barbagia are the Merdules and Boes from Ottana. The merdule is a human figure who represents the owner of Sos Boes the bulls or shepherd. Sos boes are men dressed as animals with sheep skins and their faces are covered with a wooden mask with bull horns. The mask is also nicely decorated with small carvings. Sos boes also carry cow bells on the shoulders.

Sa Sartiglia in Oristano
Oristano's carnaval is very unique and interesting since they have been running a horse race called La Sartiglia for centuries, at least since XVI cent AD. The Sartiglia is organized every year by two different guilds (ancient medieval corporations), the Gremio dei Contadini or di San Giovanni Battista and the Gremio dei Falegnami or di San Giuseppe.
La Sartiglia is a sort of Medieval Tournament with knights wearing fabulous costumes and white androgynous masks. The most important people in the Sartiglia are the Componidori. They are the leaders of the knights. The knights ride beautiful horses adorned with flowers and coccarde (colorful flowers made of fabric). All the knights are chosen and selected for their ability by a knight leader called Su Componidori. They all have to run and catch with their swords, while gallopping fast, toward a silver star hanging in front of the Duomo in Oristano's historic center.

(All information from goitaly.about.com)