midnight
The Last Night of Carnival It was Carnival time in the ancient and once imperial , but now provincial and remote , city of Ravenna . It was Carnival time , and the very acme and high-tide of that season of mirth and revel . For the theory of Carnival observance is , that the life of it , unlike that of most other things and beings , is intensified with a constantly crescendo movement up to the last minutes of its existence . And there now remained but an hour before midnight on the Tuesday preceding the first day of Lent , Ash Wednesday -- Dies Cinerum ! -- that sad and sober morrow which has brought with it `` sermons and soda-water '' to so many generations of revellers . Of course Carnival , according to the Calendar and Time 's hour-glass , is over at twelve o'clock on the night of Shrove Tuesday . Generally , however , in the pleasure-loving cities of Italy , a few hours ' law are allowed or winked at .