This is a ritual action celebrating the end of the Carnival – and its death rendered in satirical form – on Ash Wednesday, already within the period of Lent. The community participates in the funeral ceremony, which opens with the prayer vigil and concludes with solemn funeral rites on a stage set up in the main square of the village, enacted by local people and today coordinated by artistic director and actor, Vincenzo Macedone. The desperate widow, the archpriest and the marching band mark the stages of the ritual; in the coffin the Dead Carnival is embodied by a real person, the object of ridicule and mockery, according to a widespread tradition in some areas of central and southern Italy. It is an event that allows social criticism and the overturning of roles, in the form of a parody of established authorities and a ritualized protest.