The throwing of objects at parades is well-documented in
Milan from the 14th century. The nobles would throw candies and flowers during the parades, while dames threw eggshells filled with essences and perfumes. Lower-class people mocked the nobles by throwing rotten eggs, and battles among enemy factions or districts became common. In 1597, the city governor
Juan Fernández de Velasco y Tovar imposed a ban on egg-throwing and
squittaroli (spraying liquids in the street) along with other immoral behaviors. The custom disappeared for about a century, re-emerging in the 1700s in the form of thrown small candies, typically sugar-coated seeds. The seeds used were mostly
coriander, a common plant in the area: the Italian name for confetti is
coriandoli, from the name of the herb. The candies were expensive, and the lower classes often used small
chalk balls instead, called
benis de gess (chalk candy). Those were officially defined as the only material allowed to be thrown during the parades in an edict by the Prefect of Milan in 1808, but the battles fought with them in the 1800s became too large and dangerous, with hundreds of people involved, leading to a ban of the chalk pellets. Some circumvented the ban by throwing balls of mud. ==Etymology and Italian
confetti==