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Check
Out Some Pix Of Past Mardi Gras
THE
HISTORY OF
Mardi
Gras, also known as Shrove Tuesday or Carnival, annual festival marking
the final day before the Christian fast of Lent, a 40-day period of
self-denial and abstinence from merrymaking. Mardi Gras is the last
opportunity for revelry and indulgence in food and drink before the
temperance of Lent. The term Mardi Gras is French for "Fat
Tuesday."
The date of Mardi Gras varies from year to year, always falling between
February 3 and March 9. Although Mardi Gras refers to a specific day,
the term often encompasses a much longer period of celebrations leading
up to Mardi Gras Day. The Carnival season is marked by spectacular
parades featuring floats, pageants, elaborate costumes, masked balls,
and dancing in the streets.
Some scholars have noted similarities between modern Mardi Gras
celebrations and Lupercalia, a fertility festival held each February in
ancient Rome. However, modern Carnival traditions developed in Europe
during the Middle Ages (5th century to the 15th century) as part of the
ritual calendar of the Roman Catholic Church.
Today pre-Lenten Carnivals are celebrated predominantly in Roman
Catholic communities in Europe and the Americas. Cities famous for their
celebrations include Nice, France; Cologne, Germany; and Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. New Orleans, Louisiana, holds the most famous Mardi Gras
celebration in the United States. Residents of New Orleans have been
celebrating Mardi Gras since the 18th century. Mobile, Alabama, has a
lesser known but equally old Mardi Gras tradition. Mardi Gras is
informally observed in many North American cities, usually invoking the
spirit of the New Orleans festivities.
Not all Mardi Gras celebrations take place in urban areas. Distinctive
Mardi Gras traditions are also maintained by the Cajuns, an ethnic group
that derives its culture from French Canadian refugees who settled in
southwestern Louisiana during the 18th century. In rural Cajun
communities, costumed revelers on horseback ride from house to house
begging for ingredients to make gumbo, a thick, strongly flavored soup.
Other members of the community await the riders and make preparations
for a party. Around sunset, the riders make a dramatic entrance, present
the crowd with the gumbo ingredients they have gathered, and join the
party.
MARDI
GRAS IN NEW ORLEANS
For most North Americans, Mardi Gras is synonymous with the celebrations
held in New Orleans. As Carnival season approaches, residents of New
Orleans decorate the city with streamers and flags in the traditional
Mardi Gras colors of green, gold, and purple. The season begins for many
people on January 6 when king cakes are served during the feast of
Epiphany, a holiday commemorating the day three kings (see Wise Men of
the East) arrived from the east to honor the Christ child. King cakes
are circular pastries usually decorated in the Mardi Gras colors.
Traditionally, a king cake containing a bean or a small baby figurine
was divided and served to the unmarried women attending a Mardi Gras
banquet. Whoever received the slice containing the hidden object was
crowned queen of the festival. Today king cakes are popular with office
workers, and the person who finds the hidden treasure is obliged to buy
the next day’s cake.
Carnival parades through the streets of New Orleans begin 12 days before
Mardi Gras Day. Most parades, sponsored by private and highly secretive
organizations known as krewes, combine imagery from classical Greek and
Roman mythology with satirical references to contemporary events. During
the parades, costumed krewe members ride highly decorated floats and
toss strings of plastic beads and other trinkets into the crowds of
spectators lining the streets. Many krewes hold elaborate, private balls
following their parades. On Mardi Gras Day, many ordinary people dress
in costume and wander through the city. Revelers jam the narrow streets
of the city’s oldest neighborhood, known as the French Quarter. The
atmosphere in the French Quarter is marked by drunken euphoria and
general abandon.
African
American Mardi Gras Traditions
Although modern Mardi Gras festivities have become increasingly
integrated since the 1960s, the African American community of New
Orleans has long nurtured a number of distinctive Carnival customs. The
largest African American krewe of Mardi Gras is the Zulu Social
Aid & Pleasure Club Inc., which presents one of the premier
attractions of the Mardi Gras season. Combining Mardi Gras revelry with
features reminiscent of an elaborate minstrel show, the Zulu parade is
especially boisterous. Many Zulus march in blackface (black makeup
traditionally used in minstrel shows) and wear grass skirts as they
distribute gold-painted coconuts to crowds of observers.
Another important African American Carnival tradition is the annual
appearance of the Mardi Gras Indians, groups of black men who dance
through the streets in costumes inspired by the traditional clothing of
Native Americans. Each member of a Mardi Gras Indian tribe creates his
own costume, usually incorporating colorful feathers and intricate
beadwork. Most scholars believe that the Mardi Gras Indian tradition
began in the late 19th century. In the past, rivalries between tribes
sometimes led to violent confrontations. Today, such conflicts have
given way to a competition among the Mardi Gras Indian tribes for the
most elaborate costume.
History
of Mardi Gras in New Orleans During the 18th century, many wealthy
Louisiana families would leave their rural plantations to spend the
winter months in New Orleans, where they held lavish parties and masked
balls. The first written reference to Mardi Gras celebrations in New
Orleans appears in a 1781 report of the Spanish government, which then
controlled Louisiana. The report addressed problems that might arise
from allowing slaves to wear masks at the winter festivities. The United
States took control of Louisiana in 1803, and the New Orleans city
council banned all masked entertainment three years later. Enforcement
of the law appears to have been erratic. By the mid-1820s masks and
costumes were again legal. The first documented Mardi Gras parade took
place in 1837, and the parade soon became an annual tradition. However,
outbursts of violence at the parades gave the festivities a bad name.
In 1857 a group calling itself The Mystik Krewe of Comus staged the
first modern Mardi Gras parade, a torchlit nighttime procession of
floats illustrating themes from classical mythology and literature.
Following the American Civil War (1861-1865), many new krewes soon began
offering additional parades and balls. The Krewe of Rex, organized in
1872, pioneered many innovations that became defining features of New
Orleans Mardi Gras. Rex established the tradition of crowning a King of
Carnival, selected the Carnival colors, and adopted the song "If
Ever I Cease to Love" as a Mardi Gras anthem.
Throughout
the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Mardi Gras became increasingly
important to New Orleans. The festivities attracted visitors, generated
income for local merchants, and added to the city’s mystique. The
first African American Mardi Gras organization was established in 1894.
An all-women group was founded two years later. By the late 1960s,
however, many people began to worry that Mardi Gras was in decline.
Critics of the parades felt that Mardi Gras had become old-fashioned,
and they claimed that the exclusivity of the traditional krewes deterred
the lucrative tourist trade. In 1968 the newly formed Krewe of Bacchus
staged a parade featuring huge floats and led by an out-of-town
celebrity. Other organizations soon followed suit, inaugurating the era
of so-called super-krewes.
In 1992 the New Orleans city council passed a law prohibiting racial
discrimination in groups that sponsored parades using city streets. The
law required krewes to provide evidence to the council that they did not
discriminate on the basis of race in selecting their membership. Many of
the oldest and most prestigious krewes, which had traditionally shrouded
their membership policies in secrecy, refused to comply with the law and
ceased to parade. Nonetheless, Mardi Gras continues to attract tourists
to New Orleans from around the world. Today Mardi Gras draws more than 3
million people to parades and generates approximately $1 billion for the
local economy.
Contributed By:
Brent Lanford
Future
Fat Tuesdays
2008 February 5
2009 February 24
2010 February 16
2011 March l8,
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