Thursday, October 14, 2021

Postcard: Chicken float at Carnaval de Nice

This vintage postcard, undated and unused, features a float from the storied Carnaval de Nice in France. This card probably doesn't qualify for Mild Fear 2021, unless you suffer from alektorophobia, the fear of chickens. In that instance, a three-story chicken coming down the street at you might seem worse than being chased by Freddy or Jason.

Brian Barth wrote an article about alektorophobia for Modern Farmer in 2016 and couldn't find much about the phobia beyond some Reddit posts, a book by Nicolae Sfetcu, an ebook-peddling hypnotherapist and the videogame Five Nights at Freddy's. Werner Herzog is mentioned in passing, because of course he is.

Getting back to Carnaval de Nice, it has a history that dates all the way back to 1294 CE. Its modern incarnation as a parade began in 1873. "Each year, a special theme is chosen, and artists create 18 floats and other figurines in traditional papier-mâché for the colorful parade," Wikipedia notes. The next celebration is set for Feb. 11-27, 2022.

While the chicken dominates the frame in this old postcard, a closer examination reveals something that might be more terrifying... 

No comments:

Post a Comment