In Milan the carnival is celebrated on the Saturday after the ashes, when in the rest of Italy, where the Roman rite has in no extent, it has already been Lent for three days. Why? At the base there is a historical fact: the Ambrosian ritedifferent on the liturgical level from the Roman rite, But there are not few legends that have grafted there And that they still pass on.
In ancient times, as we reconstruct by leaning on the notes Marco Navoni, prefect of the Ambrosiana Librarythe Ambrosian rite, which dates back to an ancient tradition than the Roman one to which Milan has never conformed, He has never had “Ash Wednesday”: the beginning of Lent is calculated starting from the following Sunday, the sixth before Easterthe one in which we read the Gospel of the fast of Jesus in the desert. In fact, in the liturgy of intermediate Sundays of Lent, the Ambrosian rite preserves precise traces of the ancient connotation of Lent in the baptismal sense: it was in fact the period in which the catechumens prepared for the sacraments of Christian initiation, administered during the Easter vigil (as still happens).
The beginning and end of Lent (the ashes and on Easter Sunday in the Roman rite, the sixth Sunday before Easter and the Easter Triduum excluded in the Ambrosian) are different becauseMarco Navoni writes: «If we take the calendar and, starting back from Holy Thursday, we count forty days, we arrive exactly on the first Sunday of Lent: therefore, The forty days of penance begin on the sixth Sunday before Easter and reach the Easter Triduum excludedwhich begins to the Vespers of Holy Thursday. This is the original calculation of Lent, preserved in the Ambrosian rite. In this perspective we mean Lent as a period of forty days of penance, but not of close fastingsince, according to an ancient tradition, On Sunday it was not to be fast. In the Middle Ages the idea of the forty effective days of fasting took over; Furthermore, Lent was understood more as a period of preparation on Easter Sunday, than to the Easter triduum. Hence the need for a new calculation: if in fact we start from the Holy Saturday and count at the back forty days, however, jumping the Sundays in which it did not type, we arrive right on the previous Wednesday The first Sunday of Lent. The calculation was welcomed by the Roman Church and spread throughout the West, except in Milan ».
To the history of the Ambrosian rite and in particular to that of the Carnival, The so -called “Carnevalone” which is celebrated in Milan on the Saturday that follows Grasso Thursday, The popular legends are added all linked to the popular agiography of Sant’Ambrogio. It is said that in the fourth century of Sant’Ambrogio, the Milanese carnival was renowned It is considered as much as the Venetian one and that the Milanese waited to celebrate their bishop who returned late for a pilgrimage. Of this story circulate two variants: the first according to which the Milanese took advantage of the absence to prolong the party, the second that wants it to be the future Sant’Ambrogio who asked to wait for him.
Another version, similar, instead replaces the pilgrimage with a more institutional diplomatic commitment at the Imperial Court and interprets the wait as a form of respect by the city and the delay Like a pantry granted by Bishop on the return, or, according to others, obtained from ambassadors along the road of the return.
Another story still, a little different, Instead, it wants that one year the end of Lent had gone to coincide with the end of a pestilence that had prevented the holidays And forced the population to hunger due to isolation and raised food and that the dispensation to prolong the celebrations was asked to the Pope by Ambrogio to refresh the Milanese.
What Historically, it is certain that the Ambrosian carnival had attracted the attention of Carlo Borromeo who as a bishop of Milan did not see good luck The prolongation of the party, but not even the greatest severity of the post -concentration Church has managed to modify the exclusive tradition of the city that still preserves the unique tradition of its carnival out of time.
