La Fete d'Ours, or “Festival of the Bears” is a celebration in which men wear bear skins and grotesque masks with brown fabric.
It is a mystical veneration of bears rousing themselves from hibernation.
This Catalan pagan festival of awakening has roots in pre-abrahamic tradition.

In Loetschental, Switzerland on Fat Thursday, observance of the carnival of Tschäggättä, where monstrous masked figures rile up villagers and chase away unwanted spirits.
The figures don their masks and toss soot at onlookers with the misfortune of being out late.

In Evolène, Switzerland a carnival is celebrated revering both farmers and agriculture, combining both crop growers and livestock breeders.
The festival celebrates nature and the working of the land, paying homage to natural spirits which assist farmers and livestock farmers.

In Tramin Italy, the Schnappviecher are large, many toothed beasts represented by forty pound costumes who invade the village in a symbolic fight with farmers and butchers. The latter symbolically slaughter the costumed men in protection of the village and its livestock.

In Austis, Sardinia, Colonganos masks and costumes are worn by the adherents of an ancient tradition.
Covered almost completely, these masqueraders trade their cowbells for rattling animal bones.
A sacrificial wild boar masquerader is then symbolically bludgeoned and killed.