Mask from the Alps

In many isolated Alpes valleys, the masks tradition, images of local ancient customs, has lasted next to the carnival. In Austria, Switzerland, Southern Germany or Northen Italy, some characters, whose aspects are diverse as the local dialects of the men behind the masks, spread terror after them each years at the same period. Here, grimacing devils; there, men fully wrapped in straw; over there, persons wearing clothes decorated witch lichen, bird feathers or fox skins; all of them burst into houses. Somewhere else, young men are running from villages to villages wearing gigantic hats; or dressed with large feathers, perform in the farms some strange ancestral dances.