Маскарад: история, традиции и отражение в искусстве

Event in which participants attend in costume wearing a mask

A masquerade ball (or bal masqué) is a special kind of formal ball which many participants attend in costume wearing masks. (Compare the word "masque"—a formal written and sung court pageant.) Less formal "costume parties" may be a descendant of this tradition. A masquerade ball usually encompasses music and dancing. These nighttime events are used for entertainment and celebrations.

Masquerade masks were worn delicately by the prosperous class at balls. Masquerade masks had many uses including hiding one's identity, and using different colour to express one's freedom of speech and voice one's emotions and opinions without judgement. Designs and patterns were created over the base that was chosen. The main types of masks included masks with a stick (which one could hold to keep the mask in front of their face), the head mask, the full face mask, and the half face mask.

In French Guiana, throughout the Carnival period, masked balls (known as paré masked balls) take place every weekend. These are called Touloulous balls, where the Touloulous (women) are completely disguised and unrecognizable. Recently the Tololos (men) have also taken to wearing disguises.

A new resurgence of masquerade balls began in the late 1990s in North America. More recently, the party atmosphere is emphasized and the formal dancing usually less prominent. In present times, masquerade masks are used for costumes during Halloween. Masquerade masks are sold in a wide range of stores in different designs, and colors. A ball in Zürich is featured in the novel Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse. A masquerade ball is central to the plot of Mikhail Lermontov's 1835 play Masquerade. The play was censored and never staged during Lermontov's lifetime, partly because of the implied criticism of the masquerade balls staged by the aristocratic Engelhardt family. The book, musical and most film adaptations of The Phantom of the Opera have a scene at a masked ball. The Phantom's (Erik's) costume is that of the Red Death from the aforementioned Edgar Allan Poe story The Masque of the Red Death. In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Romeo meets Juliet at a masquerade ball. The video game Dishonored has a mission called Lady Boyle's Last Party, taking place at a masquerade where the primary objective is discerning the identity of Lady Boyle, a masked party goer. The video game Assassin's Creed II has a series of missions called Carnevale set during Venetian Carnival where the primary objective is to gain access to one of the more prestigious masquerade balls, ending in the mission which primarily takes place in the masquerade ball. The video game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt features a mission set at a masquerade ball, on the Vegelbud estate, where the primary objective is to find the owner's son who is wearing a panther mask.