At Carnevale in Italy, it is a tradition to throw confetti and streamers. The squares and streets of old town centres are coloured with bits of paper, while curls of streamers hang brazenly from the shoulders of masked people.
But where does this custom originate?
The custom of throwing flowers, petals or leaves is very old. Historians date it back to ancient Greek times, when it was done in honour of athletes or battle heroes, but also at funerals and weddings.
Scholars refer to the testimony of the Greek poet Stesichorus, who recounts the throwing of flowers at the wedding of Helen and Menelaus, but on various archaeological finds ― vases in particular ― scenes are depicted in which the protagonists throw leaves.
The gesture of throwing flowers or confetti is said to recall the throwing of gifts according to some, and is a testimony of one's joy and participation, according to others.
During the Renaissance period, in Italy, the seeds of the coriander plant were covered in sugar and turned into small sweets, dubbed 'confetti', such was their popularity, that the term has remained in use in English.
These seeds were later replaced by chalk balls, which had the advantage of being lighter, and could be coloured.
To arrive at the version of confetti that we know today, we have to wait until the second half of the 1800s, when the Triestine engineer, Ettore Fenderl, is said to have cut out and thrown bits of paper from the window of his house, in Piazza Borsa, onto the Carnival masks that passed by.
But while Fenderl claimed paternity during a radio interview in 1957, the person who actually had the idea of producing and marketing confetti was another engineer: Enrico Mangili.
A Milanese textile entrepreneur, in 1875 he had the idea of recycling the discarded circles of perforated paper used in silkworm farms.
For a whole year Mangili, who was also a well-known philanthropist, would distribute the confetti free of charge, and then, prompted by its great success, he decided to put it on the market the following year.
Confetti thus appeared on the stalls of Milanese street vendors, sold for 5 or 6 cents in the cones of roasted chestnuts.
A few years later these cones could be found in every part of Europe, soon spreading all over the world.
Mangili himself is also credited with the invention of streamers, which are said to have been inspired by rolls of telegraph ribbon.
Unfortunately, most confetti on the market today contains plastic, which allows for brighter colours, but has the disadvantage of being environmentally unsustainable.
One should think about a return to the origins of this tradition by using, as they did in ancient Greece, flowers and leaves, perhaps even creating shapes with a perforating machine, achieving an equally fun and even fragrant result.
