midnight
-- 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 . The revellers are not supposed to become aware that it is past midnight till about three or four in the morning . Very generally the wind-up of the season of fun and frolic consists of what is called a `` Veglione , '' or `` great making a night of it , '' which means a masked ball at the theatre . And the great central chandelier does not begin to descend into the body of the house , to have its lights flapped out by the handkerchiefs of the revellers amid a last frantic rondo , till some four hours after midnight . But in provincial Ravenna , a Pope 's city under the rule of a Cardinal Legate , there is -- or was in the days when the Pope held sway there -- no Veglione .