Carnival emptied of meaning? In premodern, traditional societies, Carnival functioned as a temporary overturning of social conventions and, through satire, celebration and disguise, offered the possibility of expression and collective resistance to established systems of power. Today, with the dominance of commercialisation and the logic of spectacle, Carnival’s traditional role as a collective experience of renewal and “catharsis” is being called into question. What remains?
The Patras Carnival: the historical experience of the most characteristic urban carnival in Greece and the significance of its growing active participation, with 35,000 carnival-goers. Patras (Carnival) – Mani (Laments): two contrasting forms of adaptation to modernity. Rituals of celebration and death in contemporary Greece.
Disguise and the modern individual. The role of the mask as an expression of the enduring human psychological need to transcend routine, and as part of the modern individual’s search for the experience of “multiple identities”.
Carnival and Clean Monday. Pleasure / sensual enjoyment and Catharsis / Fasting. The dual structure of cyclical time, from pagan customs to the Christian religion.
Ultimately, what is the role of Carnival in modern life? A meaningless revel and an entertainment spectacle of compulsory joy, the memory of a communal tradition or, despite everything, yet another opportunity for the emancipation of the modern individual?

See the related article in TA NEA