The Natisone Valleys lie at the eastern fringes of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region, where, in a centuries old tradition of the rural economy, the Pust (Carnival) marks the moment in the passage of the seasons when Winter turns to Spring. Even if they have different nuances, the forms of the expiatory and propitiary characters of this ancient ritual, closely linked to the area’s economy and culture, live on in the masked figures:  le maschere belle e quelle brutte (the beautiful and ugly masks), il diavolo e l'angelo (the devil and the angel), and other traditional characters such as the pustici, the pustje, the minke, the blumarji...

These masked figures are the most characteristic features of the Natisone Valleys carnivals, and are made to unique and strictly defined designs, although similar examples may be found throughout the Alps. Pulfero is the home of the unique carnival of the blumarji of Montefosca, which is associated with a type of "initiation" rite. Other major carnivals include the Pustje of Mersino e of Rodda, the Pustici of Matajur, the Carnevale of Biacis, the Carnevale of Stregna, the Pustje and the Minke of Masarolis and other "contemporary" masked figures such as Clodig’s..