| Confetti usually brings to mind joyful scenes of fluttering paper strips, but that wasn't always the case. In 19th-century Italy, confetti actually referred to sugar-coated almonds and other candied foods, tossed during street festivals such as pre-Lent Carnival celebrations. "Confetti" is originally an Italian word meaning "sweetmeats," a general term for dessert foods. Carnival celebrations in cities including Rome and Naples encouraged excess before the austerity of Lent. Revelers pelted each other from the streets and balconies, armed with slings and tubes to launch their edible ammunition. By the mid-1800s, small plaster balls and chalk pellets were used as a cheaper and more accessible alternative to the candied almonds. Charles Dickens describes such a scene vividly in 1846's Pictures From Italy, noting that protective wire masks had become required Carnival gear. By 1875, Milan businessman Enrico Mangili was selling paper scraps from his silk manufacturing company for use in Carnival celebrations, and paper confetti quickly replaced its candied predecessors. | 
