Sa Partorja

The last figure of the Ancient Carnival of Siniscola is “Sa Partorja”. In the Angius-Casalis Geographical and Historical Dictionary of Sardinia of 1833, it is written that in Siniscola, during Carnival, a masked man dressed as a widow, with his face covered in soot and a large belly simulating a pregnant woman, used to walk around. The figure would enter the house shouting as if in labour pains and ask to be offered something; if the request was not granted, he would fall to the ground and would not leave until he obtained bread or wine. This tradition was also present in other Carnivals of Europe and Africa, in the Thracian, Berber and Asturian Carnivals.
In the Siniscolese one, it represents rebirth after the passion and death of s’Orcu.
This is the thread that connects all Mediterranean Carnivals, including the Siniscolese one: death and rebirth of nature. It is the representation of grief, linked to life in the fields and the cycle of the seasons.