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What is the Mardi Gras
and how did it get started?
Mardi Gras is also celebrated in Pensacola, Florida, in Mobile, Alabama,
in Rio, Brazil, and around the world. But the city of New Orleans,
does it best.
The Mardi Gras celebration began
centuries before the New World was discovered. During mid-February
(usually February 15), the ancient Romans would observed the Lupercalia,
a circus-type festival which was, in many respects, quite similar to the
present day Mardi Gras. This
festival honored the Roman deity, Lupercus, a pastoral God associated
with Faunus or the Satyr. Although Lupercus is derived from the Latin
Lupus (meaning "wolf"), the original meaning of the word as it
applies to Roman religion has become obscured over the passage of time.
When Christianity arrived in Rome,
the dignitaries of the early Church decided it would be more prudent to
incorporate certain aspects of such rituals into the new faith rather
than attempt to abolish them altogether. This granted a Christian
interpretation to the ancient custom and the Carnival became a time of
abandon and merriment which peceeded the Lenten period (a symbolic
Christian penitence of 40 days commencing on Ash Wednesday and ending at
Easter). During this time, there would be feasting which lasted several
days and participants would indulge in voluntary madness by donning
masks, clothing themselves in the likeness of specters and generally
giving themselves up to Bacchus and Venus. All aspects of pleasure were
considered to be allowable during the Carnival celebration and today's
modern festivities are thought by some to be more reminiscent of the
Roman Saturnalia rather than Lupercalia, or be linked to even earlier
Pagan festivals.
From Rome, the celebration spread
to other European countries. In medieval times, a similar-type festivity
to that of the present day Mardi Gras was given by monarchs and lords
prior to Lent in order to ceremoniously conscript new knights into
service and hold feasts in their honor. The landed gentry would also
ride through the countryside rewarding peasants with cakes (thought by
some to be the origin of the King Cake), coins (perhaps the origin of
present day gifts of Mardi Gras doubloons) and other trinkets. In
Germany, there still remains a Carnival similar to that of the one held
in New Orleans. Known as Fasching, the celebrations begin on Twelfth
Night and continue until Shrove Tuesday. To a lesser degree, this
festivity is still celebrated in France and Spain. A Carnival season was
also celebrated in England until the Nineteenth Century, originating as
a type of "renewal" festival that incorporated fertility
motifs and ball games which frequently turned into riots between
opposing villages, followed by feasts of pancakes and the imbibing of
alcohol. The preparing and consumption of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday
(also known as "Pancake Day" or "Pancake Tuesday"
and occurring annually between February 2 and March 9, depending upon
the date of Easter) is a still a tradition in the United Kingdom, where
pancake tossing and pancake races (during which a pancake must be tossed
a certain number of times) are still popular. One of the most famous of
such competitions, which takes place in Olney, Buckinghamshire, is said
to date from 1445. It is a race for women only and for those who have
lived in the Parish for at least three months. An apron and
head-covering are requisite. The course is 415 yards and the pancake
must be tossed at least three times during the race. The winner receives
a kiss from the Ringer of the Pancake Bell and a prayer book from the
local vicar. "Shrove" is derived from the Old English word
"shrive," which means to "confess all sins."
It is generally accepted that Mardi
Gras came to America in 1699 with the French explorer, Sieur d'Iberville.
The festival had been celebrated as a major holiday in Paris since the
Middle Ages. Iberville sailed into the Gulf of Mexico and, from there,
launched an expedition along the Mississippi River. By March 3, 1699,
Iberville had set up a camp on the West Bank of the River...about 60
miles South of the present day City of New Orleans in the State of
Louisiana. Since that day was the very one on which Mardi Gras was being
celebrated in France, Iberville named the site Point du Mardi Gras in
honor of the festival. According to some sources, however, the Mardi
Gras of New Orleans began in 1827 when a group of students who had
recently returned from school in Paris donned strange costumes and
danced their way through the streets. The students had first experienced
this revelry while taking part in celebrations they had witnessed in
Paris. In this version, it is said that the inhabitants of New Orleans
were swiftly captured by the enthusiasm of the youths and quickly
followed suit. Other sources maintain that the Mardi Gras celebration
originated with the arrival of early French settlers to the State of
Louisiana. Nevertheless, it is known that from 1827 to 1833, the New
Orleans' Mardi Gras celebrations became more elaborate, culminating in
an annual Mardi Gras Ball. Although the exact date of the first
revelries cannot be determined, the Carnival was well-established by the
middle of the Nineteenth Century when the Mystick Krewe of Comus
presented its 1857 Torchlight Parade with a theme taken from
"Paradise Lost" written by John Milton.
In French, "Mardi Gras"
literally means "Fat Tuesday," so named because it falls on
the day before Ash Wednesday, the last day prior to Lent...a 40-day
season of prayer and fasting observed by the Roman Catholic Church (and
many other Christian denominations) which ends on Easter Sunday. The
origin of "Fat Tuesday" is believed to have come from the
ancient Pagan custom of parading a fat ox through the town streets. Such
Pagan holidays were filled with excessive eating, drinking and general
bawdiness prior to a period of fasting. Since the modern day Carvinal
Season is sandwiched between Christmas and Lent, with Christmas Day
being December 25 on the Gregorian Calendar as set by the Roman Catholic
Church, this means that other Holy Days are "floating" in
nature. Easter always falls on a Sunday, but it can be any Sunday from
March 23 through April 25, its actual date being the Sunday which
follows the first Full Moon after the Spring Equinox. Mardi Gras is
always 47 days prior to this alloted Sunday (the 40 days of Lent plus
seven Sundays). The beginning of the Carnival Season itself, however, is
also fixed...being January 6, which is the Feast of the Ephiphany,
otherwise known as Little Christmas or Twelfth Night. Since the date of
Mardi Gras thus varies, the length of the Carnival Season also varies
accordingly from year-to-year. The origin of the word "Carnival"
is from the Latin for "farewell to the flesh," a time when one
is expected to forego earthly pleasures prior to the restrictions of the
Lenten Season, and is thought to be derived from the feasts of the
Middle Ages known as carnis levamen or "solace of the flesh."
In 1833, Bernard Xavier de Marigny
de Mandeville, a wealthy plantation owner, solicited a large amount of
money in order to help finance an organized Mardi Gras celebration. It
was not until 1837, however, that the first Mardi Gras Parade was
staged. Two years later, a description of the 1839 Parade noted that it
consisted of a single float. Nonetheless, it was considered to be a
great success and apparently, the crowd roared hilariously as this
somewhat crude float moved through the streets of the city. Since that
time, Mardi Gras in New Orleans has been an overwhelming success,
continuing to grow with additional organizations participating each
year.
The traditional colors of Mardi
Gras are purple (symbolic of justice), green (symbolic of faith) and
gold (symbolic of power). The accepted story behind the original
selection of these colors originates from 1872 when the Grand Duke
Alexis Romanoff of Russia visited New Orleans. It is said that the Grand
Duke came to the city in pursuit of an actress named Lydia Thompson.
During his stay, he was given the honor of selecting the official Mardi
Gras colors by the Krewe of Rex...thus, did these colors also become the
colors of the House of Romanoff. The 1892 Rex Parade theme
("Symbolism of Colors") first gave meaning to the
representation of the official Mardi Gras colors. Interestingly, the
colors of Mardi Gras influenced the choice of school colors for the
Lousiana arch-rival colleges, Louisiana State University and Tulane
University. Whe LSU was deciding on its colors, the stores in New
Orleans had stocked-up on fabrics of purple, green and gold for the
upcoming Mardi Gras Season. LSU, opting for purple and gold, bought a
large quantity of the available cloth. Tulane purchased much of the only
remaining color...green (Tulane's colors are green and white).
Today, Louisiana's Mardi Gras is
celebrated not only in New Orleans, but also in numerous smaller cities
and towns around the State and in the neighboring Gulf Coast Region.
Similar celebrations are also held in the Brazilian city of Rio de
Janeiro...arguably the world's most elaborate Carnival location with its
Samba Dromo parades, which annually attract a huge number of tourists
from all corners of the globe. Regardless of where the festivals take
place, however, all share a common party atmosphere inherently
associated with the celebrations.
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