Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras (
French for "
Fat Tuesday") is the day before
Ash Wednesday, and is also called "
Shrove Tuesday" or "
Pancake Day". It is the final day of
Carnival (
English: and
Romance languages:). It is a celebration that is held just before the beginning of the
Christian liturgical season of
Lent. The feast should not be confused with the Polish
TÅ‚usty Czwartek or the Swedish
Fettisdagen (which both translate to
Fat Thursday).
The date can vary from
February 3 to
March 9 in non-
leap years or
February 4 to
March 9 in leap years. Like Lent, the date is dependent on that of
Easter.
Mardi Gras falls on the following dates in the following years:
*
2007 â€"
February 20*
2008 â€"
February 5 *
2009 â€"
February 24*
2010 â€"
February 16*
2011 â€"
March 8*
2012 â€"
February 21*
2013 â€"
February 12*
2014 â€"
March 4The annual Carnival that is held at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil also has relations with the Mardi Gras. Actually the celebrations of the Carnival ends on "Mardi Gras". This festival is an annual event that is held 2 weeks before the traditional Christian fasting of Lent. Thousands of people from across Brazil and also from other parts of the world come to attend the festivities. Carnival comes with a lot of music, good food, color and of course the Samba dance. And of course there is the Mardi Gras, that becomes an added attraction.
Mardi Gras and The Rio de Janeiro Carnival Perhaps the cities most famous for their Mardi Gras celebrations include
New Orleans,
Rio de Janeiro,
Venice,
Bahia, and
Mazatlán. Many other places have important Mardi Gras celebrations as well. The carnival is an important celebration in most of
Europe, and in many parts of
Latin America and the
Caribbean.
United States
While not observed nationally throughout the
United States, a number of cities and regions in the country have notable celebrations.
Mardi Gras arrived in North America with the LeMoyne brothers, Iberville and Bienville, in the late 17th century, when
King Louis XIV sent the pair to defend France's claim on the territory of Louisiana, which included Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
The explorers eventually found the mouth of the Mississippi River, sailed a while upstream and named the spot Point du Mardi Gras (Mardi Gras Point). The traditional Catholic celebration ensued leading to what many refer to as
North America's first Mardi Gras; thus, the French province of Louisiana has the claim to the first Mardi Gras; Mobile would become the official capital of the Province in 1704.
Carnival celebrations became an annual event highlighted by lavish balls and masked spectacles. Some were small, private parties with select guest lists, while others were raucous, public affairs.
Recently Mardi Gras has taken root in several major cities in the USA as the event contributes to help local economies bring revenues.
Louisiana
= New Orleans
=
New Orleans Mardi Gras is particularly well-known, often called "the greatest free show on earth". The celebrations draw many
tourists to the city in addition to the celebrating locals for the
parties and
parades. Most tourists can be found within the
French Quarter, especially
Bourbon Street.
Mardi Gras came to New Orleans with the earliest French settlers. New Orleans developed new traditions, including
Krewes such as the
Krewe du Vieux, the
Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club, and the famous
Rex parade, in addition to
Mardi Gras Indians and
king cake parties.
There are as many as 60 Krewes that have parades in the greater New Orleans area. Officially, the Mardi Gras season, more properly called Carnival, starts at the end of the twelfth day of Christmas. Most parades, balls and other festivities occur on weeknights and weekends in the 2-week period before Mardi Gras Day. Though each parade is unique, there are certain common ingredients: 1) either a King or Queen who reigns over the parade, picked from the Krewe membership; 2) gaily colored floats, ridden by Krewe members, who throw various items, including
bead necklaces (beads),
doubloons with the Krewe emblem and often, that year's parade's theme, and assorted other fun items; 3) marching bands, usually from high schools and universities, but often other invited guest bands.
Particularly since the inception of the larger parade organizations (sometimes called "super krewes") such as Bacchus and Endymion, it has become fashionable to invite Hollywood and other celebrities to act as Grand Marshals for parades.
=Lafayette
=
Lafayette, Louisiana is home to a large Mardi Gras celebration. It is generally a family-oriented event lacking the perceived decadence of its New Orleans cousin. Lafayette is geographically the heart of
Cajun Country, and as such draws Cajuns and Creoles from all of the surrounding area to participate in Mardi Gras festivities. Hollywood celebrities have served as Grand Marshals. Visitors enjoy the Cajun hospitality and cuisine. Lafayette's population is approximately 90%
Catholic which contributes to the popularity of
Mardi Gras.
= Elsewhere in Louisiana
=
Mardi Gras is a legal holiday in Louisiana. Other places in the
New Orleans metropolitan area also have celebrations; notably the suburbs of
Metairie,
La Place and
Chalmette has large parades. Without the restrictions on commercial ties to parades of Orleans Parish, there is much advertising and trademark placements on the parades in Metairie. Metairie parades also tend to be more family-oriented, and include even a Children's parade.
Baton Rouge also has several parades.
Houma, Louisiana hosts a significant Mardi Gras celebration.
In parts of the
Cajun country of southwestern Louisiana, the traditional
Courir du Mardi Gras (French - Running of the Mardi Gras) is still run, sometimes by maskers on horseback led by "Le Capitaine" who gather ingredients for making the communal meal (usually a gumbo). The townspeople will gather in costume and move from home to home requesting ingredients for the night's meal. The requested homeowner may comply with their wishes, usually by giving some form of vegetable or live animal, such as a chicken or pig, to the members of the run. The homeowner will often release the animal and make the runners catch it. In many cases, if the homeowner refuses to give an ingredient, the runners will steal one. These
Courir can be witnessed in Church Point, Louisiana,
Eunice, Mamou, Louisiana,
Ville Platte, and Elton, Louisiana. The costumes used in these events are often homemade, employing sheets, paints, and frequently masks of wire mesh, as well as traditional conical hats known as
capuchons.
Many small towns and cities throughout southern Louisiana have Mardi Gras parades in the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras day, and particularly on that day.
There are also Mardi Gras parades in Northern Louisiana in
Shreveport, Louisiana by the Krewe of Centaur and the Krewe of Gemini and in
Monroe and
West Monroe by the Krewe of Janus.
Lake Charles, in southwest Louisiana, hosts a Krewe of Krewes parade, which is the second largest parade in the state. It also hosts parades for children and even pets.
Alexandria also celebrates with parades and days of celebration.
Mardi Gras is one of only three exceptions to
the Louisiana law against wearing hoods and masks in public, the other two being Halloween and religious beliefs.
Traditional Mardi Gras' in Louisiana generally do not throw moon pies as found in Alabama Mardi Gras celebrations.
Galveston
Galveston, Texas is home to a notable Mardi Gras festival, an Island tradition begun in 1867, and which is held in the historic Strand District on Galveston Island on the Texas Gulf Coast. It draws many tourists to Galveston.
Mobile
Mobile, Alabama has the longest tradition of observing Mardi Gras in North America, with the Celebration of Mardi Gras in Mobile dating back to 1703, and detailed by the Mardi Gras Museum in downtown Mobile [^MOBCOM]. Celebrations were halted with the
American Civil War, but were revived with a parade by
Joe Cain in
1866, whose memory is still honored each Carnival (see: the
Joe Cain Parade, including his honorary "Merry Widows"). The Mobile Mardi Gras season has always been concluded by the Order of Myths (OOM) parade, produced by the society of the same name. This is a special honor, because the 'double-O M's' are one of the oldest continuously parading Mardi Gras society in America. Throughout each parade, mystic maskers have thrown trinkets, candy, beads (bead necklaces), toys, stuffed animals, commemorative stamped coins, and
Moon Pies, a sweet baked good that combines a graham cracker like crust with marshmallow and is then covered in a flavored frosting (typically chocolate, banana, or strawberry). The oldest mystic society is the
Striker's Independent Society, formed in 1843.
Events: On February 28, 2006, Mobile had what is believed to be the largest Mardi Gras celebration in its history, with more than 244,000 revelers packing the downtown area on Fat Tuesday.
Pensacola
Pensacola, Florida hosts a Mardi Gras Celebration. The Pensacola celebrations also use
Moon Pies in combination with beads, coins, and small candies. Pensacola holds two Mardi Gras parades a year. A smaller parade is held on the Friday night before Mardi Gras with the much larger Pensacola Grand Mardi Gras Parade held on Saturday during the day. The surrounding island cities also hold their own parades.
Port Arthur
Port Arthur, Texas Is the home to a very fast-growing Mardi Gras celebration. It began in 1992.
Saint Louis
St. Louis, Missouri hosts a 600,000-people Mardi Gras celebration in the neighborhood known as
Soulard.
San Diego
As of 2005, there is a corporate sponsored party in the
Gaslamp Quarter of downtown
San Diego.
San Luis Obispo
Mardi Gras celebrations have been controversial in recent years, with leaders of this Central California city calling for an end to public celebrations in 2005. Civic and university leaders hope to end the event as a state-wide party destination for students.
See San Luis Obispo Mardi Gras controversy.Newfoundland
In
Newfoundland Mardi Gras is celebrated the weekend before
Halloween in the capital city of
St. John's. Unlike more traditional Mardi Gras celebrations, the Newfoundland celebration is largely a commercial event centered around St. John's famous
George Street pub district. Each year the street is closed off for a weekend of celebrations, with participants generally dressed in Halloween attire.
Brazil
In Brazil, the Carnival celebrations in
Recife,
Olinda,
Salvador are well-known, among others, most notably
Rio de Janeiro.
See:
Brazilian CarnivalCaribbean
In the Caribbean,
Carnival is celebrated on a number of islands. The most famous and largest-scale of these is in
Trinidad and Tobago. Other Carnivals are held on
Aruba,
Barbados,
Dominica,
Jamaica,
Grenada,
St. Lucia,
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,
Saint Kitts and Nevis, and the
French West Indies.
Mexico
In
Mexico, there are big Carnival celebrations every year in
Mazatlán, which has "The third largest Mardi Gras in the world", and
Veracruz, which that include the election of a queen and street parades.
Belgium
In
Binche the "Mardi Gras" is the most important day of the year and the summit of the
Carnival of Binche.Around 1000
Gilles are dancing through the city from 4.00 AM to late hours on traditional carnival songs.In 2003, the Carnival of Binche was proclaimed one of the
Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by
UNESCO.
Sydney
Also see
Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
Venice
Along with
New Orleans Mardi Gras,
Carnival in
Rio de Janeiro, the
Venetian Carnival is one of the three most famous Mardi Gras/Carnival celebrations in the world. It is much like Mardi Gras and Carnival mixed, and it is a highly lavish celebration.
*Mardi Gras is a critical plot theme of the
Jem TV series episode
Mardi Gras.
*In the
video game Hitman: Blood Money 47 has to kill three assassins during Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
*Girls Gone Wild
*New Orleans during Mardi Gras season is a playable level in the
video game Tony Hawk's Underground 2.
*Bam Margera and his friends visited Mardi Gras in a Season 2 episode of
Viva La Bam.
*Mardi Gras is the destination in 1969 cult classic movie: "Easy Rider".
*
Ash Wednesday*
Lent*
Easter*
Mardi Gras.com, in affiliation with the New Orleans Times-Picayune, including live webcast coverage, archives and FAQ*
Mardi Gras Digest News, Researched Articles and information on Mardi Gras*
Mardi Gras parades in Lafayette*
Mardi Gras in Cajun Country*
Article on Mardi Gras at ThisIsTheLife.com*
Mardi Gras in New Orleans*
Mobile Mardi Gras (with some Pensacola events)*
^MOBCOM - Mobile Chamber of Commerce, on Mardi Gras events (PDF file)*
Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: the biggest audio-visual show of the world.
