The story
Historic Carnival of Mamoiada in Mamoiada
In Mamoiada, a Barbagia town in inland Sardinia, masked figures called Mamuthones march in blackened wooden masks and heavy cowbell loads, escorted by white-masked Issohadores who lasso spectators for luck. The ritual appears twice yearly, at the January feast of Saint Anthony and during Carnival, with origins locals trace to pre-Christian pastoral cults.
Twelve men in blackened wooden masks and heavy sheepskin cloaks, each carrying roughly thirty kilograms of cowbells strapped to their backs, move through Mamoiada in a slow, rhythmic march that has no clear founding date.