Includes paper, paper maché, or cardboard.

TITLE: Ded Moroz
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Europe
COUNTRY: Russia
SUBREGION: Unknown
ETHNICITY: Russian
DESCRIPTION: Ded Moroz (Grandfather Frost) Mask
CATALOG ID: EURU001
MAKER: Unknown maker from Voronezh
CEREMONY: Novy God (New Year’s Holiday)
AGE: ca. 1980s
MAIN MATERIAL: thin cardboard
OTHER MATERIALS: primer; paint; lacquer; string

The character Ded Moroz, or Grandfather Frost, is a traditional Slavic version of Santa Claus, who delivers gifts to good children on New Year’s Eve, as opposed to Christmas. He was accompanied by Snegurochka (Snow Maiden), his granddaughter and helper, and is believed to live in the small western Russian town of Veliky Ustyug. He wears long, silver and blue robes and a red furred cap or snowflake crown, carries a magic staff, and sometimes rides a snow sled pulled by horses (troika). The character is believed to predate Christianity and originate in a Slavic winter wizard born of Slavic pagan gods.

The Soviet Union strongly discouraged depictions of Ded Moroz as bourgeois and religious, but remained popular nonetheless as the symbol of New Year’s Holiday, which replaced the forbidden Christmas. In fact, the Dynamo Regional Council, a Soviet fitness and sports promotion organization, organized the production and sale of many kinds of New Year’s mask in many towns, including Leningrad, Rzhev, Vyshny Vokochok, Saratov, and Yaroslavl. Witches, animals, doctors, and even masks representing the Devil were sold.

This specific mask was made in the Dynamo Workshop of the Voronezh Sports Complex, which produced them between 1951 and 1991. The masks were probably designed by the artist S.M. Nyuhin, but little is known about the specific craftswomen who made them. They were originally shaped from mashed paper on gypsum molds; dried with electric heaters; cut and pierced; primed with oil, chalk and glue; and painted and lacquered. In the 1970s, aluminum molds replaced the gypsum and cardboard substituted for paper maché, but the skilled hand painting continued.

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TITLE: Chhau Rakshasa
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Asia
COUNTRY: India
SUBREGION: West Bengal
ETHNICITY: Bengali
DESCRIPTION: Rakshasa Mask
CATALOG ID: ASIN003
MAKER: Sri Gokul Chandra Rai (Santineketan, West Bengal)
CEREMONY: Purulia Chhau Dance
AGE: 1973
MAIN MATERIAL: paper maché
OTHER MATERIALS: gesso; wire; dyed cloth; tinsel; beads; dyed feathers; paint

Chhau dance is a modern version of a classical Indian dance with tribal origins, originating in the Indian states of Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal. The dance is usually structured around Hindu folk stories exalting the gods Shiva, Devi or Vishnu, and uses both elegant and martial techniques. The Purulia Chhau of West Bengal and the Seraikela dance of Jharkhand most commonly use masks to identify the character portrayed.

This specific mask is of the Purulia type and portrays a rakshasa, an earthbound, bloodthirsty, shape-changing demon. In the Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, rakshasas are numerous and fight on the sides of both good and evil.

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TITLE: Viejo Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Nicaragua
ETHNICITY: Nahua
DESCRIPTION: Viejo (old man) mask
CATALOG ID: LANI002
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Danza del Viejo y la Vieja
AGE: 1970s
MAIN MATERIAL: paper maché
OTHER MATERIALS: plaster; paint; string; wire mesh

One of the lesser known cultural traditions of Nicaragua is the Danza del Viejo y la Vieja (Dance of the Old Man and Woman), a two-person masked dance accompanied by a whistle, marimba, and drum. The dance is a parody of infidelity and hypocrisy.  As the pair dances, the cane-wielding viejo flirts with the girls in the audience, and the vieja (usually played by a man) flirts with the boys. When each eventually realizes what the other is up to, they start arguing and beating each other.

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TITLE: Cora Tiznado Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Mexico
SUBREGION: Nayarit
ETHNICITY: Cora
DESCRIPTION: Tiznado (Judio) Mask
CATALOG ID: LAMX074
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Semana Santa (Holy Week)
AGE: 1970s
MAIN MATERIAL: paper maché
OTHER MATERIALS: watercolor paint

The Cora people of Nayarit resisted Spanish colonization and proselytization long after most of Mexico succumbed, and their pre-Christian traditions still survive with a thin veneer of Catholicism. Traditionally, the Cora worship three gods, associated with the sun, the moon, and corn.

During the Semana Santa (Holy Week), Cora men paint their bodies with black and white stripes and wear judio (Jew) masks (also called borrados) designed to look like monsters and devils that carry swords and persecute the sun god, who takes the Catholic form of Jesus of Nazareth. The character is called tiznado (“covered with ash”). On Good Friday, the judios capture and kill the sun god, who is resurrected the next day and banishes the judios.

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TITLE: Volto Carnival Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Europe
COUNTRY: Italy
SUBREGION: Venice
ETHNICITY: Italian
DESCRIPTION: Volto (plain face) mask with brown and gold schacchi design
CATALOG ID: EUIT015
MAKER: Carta Alta, Venice
CEREMONY: Carnival
AGE: 1988
MAIN MATERIAL: paper maché
OTHER MATERIALS: paint; ribbon

The volto (“face”) is a classic Venetian Carnival mask that covers the entire face for maximum anonymity. The lack of an opening, like the bauta mask, makes it appear more natural but less functional, as the masquerader must remove the mask for eating and drinking, and speaking is obstructed by the lack of a mouth opening.

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TITLE: Correfoc Diable
TYPE: helmet mask
GENERAL REGION: Europe
COUNTRY: Spain
SUBREGION: Barcelona, Catalonia
ETHNICITY: Catalan
DESCRIPTION: Diable (Devil) Mask
CATALOG ID: EUES007
MAKER: Augusto Duch (Barcelona)
CEREMONY: Correfoc (Festes de Mercè)
AGE: 2012
MAIN MATERIAL: paper maché
OTHER MATERIALS: paint; ribbons

Correfoc (“fire run”) is a Catholic ritual parade performed during the Festes de Mercè (Festival of Our Lady of Mercy) in Barcelona every September. Correfoc, one among the many events of the Mercè, is traditionally celebrated by posting a large sculpture representing the gates of Hell at the end of a major street after sunset, through which the Diable (Devil) enters shooting sparks from his pitchfork, along with an army of lesser devils doing the same. The flying sparks create a spectacle that is entrancing, but slightly perilous to the nearby crowd. Accompanying the devil army are fiberglass floats of hellish monsters with spark-throwers of their own. The event is undoubtedly calculated to instill a fear of Hell in the spectators.

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TITLE: Pra Lersi Tai Fa
TYPE: crest mask
GENERAL REGION: Asia
COUNTRY: Thailand
ETHNICITY: Thai
DESCRIPTION: Pra Lersi Tai Fa (Shiva) crest mask
CATALOG ID: ASTH002
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Wai Kru Ceremony; Korb Siam Kru Ceremony
AGE: 1980s
MAIN MATERIAL: paper maché
OTHER MATERIALS: plaster; gold leaf; paint; ribbons

Lersi, a hermit sage, is an adherent of a minority religion in Thailand derived from the Indian Brahmin and Buddhist traditions. The Lersi path is accessible to the laity who wish to dedicate themselves to benevolent spiritual goals. The Lersi believe themselves to acquire supernatural powers, such as healing, levitation, teleportation, pyrokinesis, transmutation of matter, and telepathy through such practices as self-isolation, meditation, and training.

The mask is used in the Korb Siam Kru ceremony as a blessing and purification, to drive away evil spirits.  It is also used in the Wai Kru ceremony to transmit Buddhist merit from the giver to the receiver.  In all cases, the mask is worn on top of the heard as a crest, rather than over the eyes like a helmet.

Lersi masks take many forms, including Brahmin gods and animal spirits.  This specific mask represents Pra Lersi Tai Fa, an incarnation of the Hindu god Shiva, who has a third eye that burns all it gazes upon (although, in the strict Brahmin tradition, Shiva has no incarnations). The ribbons indicate it was used in a Wai Kru ceremony.

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TITLE: Volto Carnival Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Europe
COUNTRY: Italy
SUBREGION: Venice
ETHNICITY: Italian
DESCRIPTION: Volto schacchi carnival mask
CATALOG ID: EUIT010
MAKER: Carta Alta, Venice
CEREMONY: Carnival
AGE: 2011
MAIN MATERIAL: paper maché
OTHER MATERIALS: paint; ribbon

The volto (“face”) is a classic Venetian Carnival mask that covers the entire face for maximum anonymity. The lack of an opening, like the bauta mask, makes it appear more natural but less functional, as the masquerader must remove the mask for eating and drinking, and speaking is obstructed by the lack of a mouth opening.

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TITLE: Vejigante of Ponce Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Caribbean
COUNTRY: Puerto Rico
SUBREGION: Ponce
ETHNICITY: Mestizo
DESCRIPTION: Paper Maché Vejigante Mask
CATALOG ID: CAPR004
MAKER: Miguel Caraballo Jr. (Ponce, 1951- )
CEREMONY: Carnival
AGE: 2015
MAIN MATERIAL: paper maché
OTHER MATERIALS: gesso; paint

The Carnival paraders of Ponce, Puerto Rico traditionally use paper maché masks with multiple horns and sharp teeth, accompanied by colorful and frilly costumes, to represent fantastic devils. Most consider that the more horns a mask has, the better.  Formerly, participants carried an inflated goat or cow bladder (vejiga) on a string with which to bop passers-by on the posterior.  This is how the character got its name, vejigante (bladder-carrier). Today, goat bladders are in short supply, and this practice is rare. Vejigantes nonetheless remain an indispensable part of the Ponce Carnival.

A unique feature of the Ponce carnival is that it includes the burial of a giant symbolic sardine, carried by a parader dressed as a friar and another dressed as a hooked sardine.  The sardine symbolizes the Carnival itself, and the burial marks its end.

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TITLE: Totsakan Khon Mask
TYPE: helmet mask
GENERAL REGION: Asia
COUNTRY: Thailand
SUBREGION: Bangkok
ETHNICITY: Thai
DESCRIPTION: Totsakan (Green) Khon
CATALOG ID: ASTH004
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Ramakien Dance Drama
AGE: 1960s
MAIN MATERIAL: paper maché
OTHER MATERIALS: plaster; gilding; mirrors; paint; mother-of-pearl teeth; wooden fangs

The Ramakien is the Thai adaptation of the traditional Hindu epic from India, the Ramayana.  Most male characters in the drama wear masks fashioned from paper maché and elaborately gilded, decorated, and painted.

This mask represents the demon king Totsakan, also written Tosakanth (or Ravana in Hindi), who is supposed to have 100 faces and 20 hands. His face is green during most of the play, but when he ascends to power his face turns gold.  Totsakan is the villain at the center of the Ramakien, as he abducts Sita, the beautiful wife of the hero, King Rama.  The remainder of the play focuses on Rama’s efforts, with his loyal demigod ally Hanuman, to rescue Sita and punish Totsakan.

For more on Thai khon masks, see Natthapatra Chandavij & Promporn Pramualratana, Thai Puppets and Khon Masks (Bangkok: River Books, 1998).

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