An Ancient Rite

The masks of the Sardinian carnival in Barbagia, a mountainous region of inner Sardinia, which is one of the the islands off the West Coast of Italy. These masks in particular have unique characteristics, they date back to the mists of time,  and are tied to double thread with the most archaic and ancestral rites of the land.

These are masks originate in the Dionysian rites performed in Sardinia agricultural areas over 2,000 years ago. The rituals are related to death and rebirth of nature. Sacrifices occur during the festival for the first harvest of the people of this land and for obtaining the Fires of St. Anthony, which recall the much more ancient myth of Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and gave it to men.