Starting on January 17, the day dedicated to Saint Anthony Abbot, the Thursdays of Carnival take place. Each Thursday is devoted to a specific social category, targeted by highly entertaining satirical invectives. The celebrations move from the Thursday of the Monsignor to those of the priests, nuns, widows, madmen, women, and finally to the hilarious Thursday of the “Cuckolds,” organized by the Academy of Horns, which performs the traditional “cutting of the horns.”

On February 2, the day of Candlemas, the Feast of the Bear is celebrated. After wandering through the streets of the old town, the bear reaches Piazza Plebiscito, where it announces the upcoming weather trends based on the day’s meteorological conditions (if the weather is fine on February 2, winter will last longer). This traveling show is fun and engaging, and it is one of the most anticipated moments of the Carnival of Putignano.

However, it is with the parade of enormous papier-mâché allegorical floats that the celebration truly comes alive. On the three Sundays before the beginning of Lent, the main street of Putignano fills with people eager to have fun with jokes and pranks, admiring not only the masked groups but especially the seven gigantic, brightly colored papier-mâché sculptures that move to the rhythm of music. The art of papier-mâché in Putignano is in fact ancient, handed down from generation to generation by families of master craftsmen who each year shape sheets of newspaper mixed with a flour-based glue to create unique and highly original works, whose forms satirically depict contemporary figures or events. The symbolic mask of Putignano is “Farinella,” named after a typical product of the local gastronomic tradition: a flour made from humble ingredients such as chickpeas and toasted barley.

There are four masked parades, the last and most eagerly awaited of which takes place on the evening of Shrove Tuesday, when the most beautiful float is proclaimed. Many rituals, however, are linked to the final night before Lent. It begins with the Funeral of the Carnival, staged immediately after the conclusion of the parade and continuing late into the night: a group of improbable priests roam through the streets of the historic center giving bizarre blessings and reciting in dialect the life of the dying Carnival, followed by women in tears dressed in mourning for the imminent beginning of Lent. A papier-mâché pig, symbol of the opulence typical of Carnival, is burned, and the celebration continues until midnight under the Bell of the Maccheroni: starting at 11:00 p.m., beneath a large papier-mâché bell (whose 365 tolls recall the imminent beginning of penance), macaroni with tomato sauce and sausage are distributed, while people dance and raise their glasses in celebration.