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When is Mardi Gras?
To be precise, Mardi Gras is just one day
- Mardi Gras Day, or "Fat Tuesday",
and is always the day before Ash Wednesday. The exact date
changes each year, based on the date of Easter . . . it is always 46
days before Easter.
This year, 2002,
Mardi Gras, , is February 12.
"Mardi Gras" is also used to describe the whole Carnival
season. When folks say they are coming to New Orleans for Mardi Gras,
they don't usually mean they are coming for one day but for many days
to see the parades and party. This "Mardi Gras season"
officially begins on Twelfth Night (Jan. 6), when the krewe called the
Phunny Phorty Phellows "hijacks" a streetcar and takes a
drunken, bead-throwing, King Cake-eating ride down St. Charles Avenue
and into the downtown area.
Wet Made for Prestigious PSP Feb. 2002
The Carnival period between Twelfth Night
and Mardi Gras Day features scores of krewe balls and other Mardi Gras
festivities that culminate in the big string of almost daily parades
in the final two weeks. All official festivities end at midnight on
Mardi Gras (although activities in the French Quarter just take a
short break for the ritual passing of the street-sweepers, then
continue on until dawn).
Several cities hold famous
festivities during this season, but none is more famous that New
Orleans.
New Orleans, perhaps more than any other American city, has a
culture all its own. It is an Old South city, but one in which French
is spoken. The city is renowned for its food, its architecture, and
its music. New Orleans music ranges from Dixieland jazz to
African-influenced Zydeco.
A unique form of jazz developed in the Crescent City. Actually,
you could say that all jazz grew from New Orleans music, which was
developed by the Creoles at a time when ragtime, blues, spirituals,
marches, and popular "tin pan alley" music were converging.
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The foundation of Mardi Gras was started long before the French. Some
historians see a relationship to the ancient fertility rituals performed to
welcome the coming of Spring, a time of rebirth. One possible early version of
the Mardi Gras festival was the Lupercalia. This was a celebration around
mid-February in Rome. The early Church leaders diverted the pagan practices
toward a more Christian focus.
The name Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday in French. The day is known as
Fat Tuesday, since it is the last day before Lent. Lent is the season of
prayer and fasting observed by the Roman Catholic Church and other Christian
denominations during the forty days and seven Sundays before Easter Sunday.
Easter can be on any Sunday from March 23 to April 25, since the exact day
is set to coincide with the first Sunday after the full moon following the
Spring Equinox. Mardi Gras occurs on any Tuesday from February 3 through
March 9. The Gregorian calendar, setup by the Catholic Church, determines
the exact day for Mardi Gras.
The celebration started in New Orleans around the seventeenth
century, when Jean Baptiste LeMoyne, Sieur de Bienville, and Pierre LeMoyne,
Sieur de Iberville founded the city. In 1699, the group set up camp 60 miles
south of the present location of New Orleans on the river's West Bank. They
named the site Point du Mardi Gras in recognition of the major French
holiday happening on that day, March 3. The late 1700's, saw pre-Lenten
balls and fetes in the infant New Orleans. The masked balls continued until
the Spanish government took over and banned the events. The ban even
continued after New Orleans became an American city in 1803. Eventually, the
predominant Creole population revitalized the balls by 1823. Within the next
four years, street masking was legalized.
The early Mardi Gras consisted of citizens wearing masks on foot, in
carriages, and on horseback. The first documented parade in 1837 was made of
a costumed revelers. The Carnival season eventually became so wild that the
authorities banned street masking by the late 1830's. This was an attempt to
control the civil disorder arising from this annual celebration.
This ban didn't stop the hard core celebrators. By the 1840's, a strong
desire to ban all public celebrations was growing. Luckly, six young men from
Mobile saved Mardi Gras. These men had been members of the Cowbellians, a
group that performed New Years Eve parades in Mobile since 1831. The six men
established the Mystick Krewe of Comus, which put together the first New
Orleans Carnival parade on the evening of Mardi Gras in 1857. The parade
consisted of two mule-driven floats. This promoted others to join in on this
new addition to Mardi Gras. Unfortunately, the Civil War caused the
celebration to loose some of its magic and public observance. The magic
returned along with several other new krewes after the war.
In the movie "Abbott and Costello Go to Mars," the
fearless comedians play astronauts who, instead of going to the
infamous Red Planet, land in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Needless
to say, after walking around the French Quarter, Abbott and Costello
think that they actually are on Mars.
So what’s the moral of the story? That to the uninformed, New
Orleans during Carnival turns into a topsy-turvy time when people who
are normally upstanding members of the community dress in drag, drink
excessively and misbehave all in the name of a holiday with pagan
roots.
Those of us who shun costume parties and Halloween are suddenly
searching through our closets or raiding costume stores around town in
order to participate in the madness. On Mardi Gras you almost feel out
of place if you aren’t costumed.
Costuming has had a long, if not checkered,
history that began in the days of the Lupercalian was a pre-Christian
Roman celebration when pagan priests cross-dressed and offered
themselves (as women) to celebrants (of either sex). Everyone was
masked and costumed, so better to participate in basically one mass
orgy. The crackdown came in the Middle Ages, when the church stepped
in to curb the excesses and adapted the festival to Christianity,
renaming it Cavnelevamen (which evolved into our present-day term,
"Carnival"). These days, Mardi Gras has matured into kind of
a present-day version of a raucous spring break for all ages (and
Mardi Gras has, in fact, become a popular spring-break destination).
Some of the most visible costumers are those
who ride in parades. Starting with Comus and continuing to some of the
newer krewes, costuming and masking plays an important role. Though
its original intent was to keep the members of the group
"secret" has fallen somewhat to the wayside in some krewes,
you could risk your membership in older krewes, like Comus and Rex, if
you took off your mask during the parade (though krewe members do
slightly move their masks for easier drinking and smooching of bead
recipients).
Another side of costuming, where it’s more of
a fine art rather than a matter of disguise, is that of the famed
Mardi Gras Indians, who wear some of the most elaborate outfits. For
this tradition in the New Orleans black community, a chief is the head
of a "gang" or tribe, which usually is made up of neighbors
and family members’ designs and makes a brightly colored,
one-of-a-kind costume (also known as a "suit") of intricate
beading, sequins and feathers. The costumes are worn on Mardi Gras and
again on the Sunday closest to St. Joseph’s Day, when the chief and
his gang march in the streets. In the past, these marches were highly
competitive, with rival gangs meeting and often fighting in the
street. Today, when two gangs meet, it’s to check out each other’s
suits.
Rivaling the Mardi Gras Indians with sheer
audacity and imagination is New Orleans’ gay community. The costumes
you see are witty, risque and wildly creative. One of my favorite
costumes was the leather-masked man walking down Bourbon Street,
completely naked surfeit the loofah covering his private parts. Though
the gay Carnival balls, such as Petronius, Armeinius and Lords of
Leather, stage ornate tableaux, the miscellaneous gay processions on
Mardi Gras in the French Quarter remains one of the most popular
events for everyone "straight or gay" to watch.
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In European countries, the coming of the
wisemen bearing gifts to the Christ Child is celebrated twelve days
after Christmas. The celebration, called Epiphany, Little Christmas on
the Twelfth Night, is a time of exchanging gifts and feasting. All
over the world people gather for the festive Twelfth Night
celebrations.
One of the most popular customs is still the
baking of a special cake in honor of the three kings... "A King's
Cake."
Tradition has now evolved through time to
obligate the person who receives the baby (inside every King Cake) to
continue the festivities by hosting another king cake party.
King Cakes were originally a simple ring of
dough with little decoration. We have developed our own special recipe
as a signature item to become "The King" of King
Cakes.
The King Cake is made with a rich Danish
dough, baked and covered wth a poured sugar topping and decorated with
the traditional Mardi Gras-colored sugars (also available with
flavored fillings). The end result is a delicious and festive cake in
traditional Rex colors: Purple, representing justice; Green
representing faith; Gold representing Power.
Hundreds of thousands of King Cakes are
consumed at parties every year, making the King Cake another fine
Louisiana tradition.
In fact, a Mardi Gras party wouldn't be a
Mardi Gras party without a King Cake.
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Mardi gras lingo
BALL (ball masque, tableau ball) -
a themed masked ball, where the krewe royalty is presented to the club
members
BOEUF (French
word) - this is a large bull or ox, which represents the ancient
symbol of the last meal before the Lenten season of fasting
CAPTAIN - this
is the leader of each Carnival organization
CARNIVAL
(from Latin carnivale) - translated to be farewell to the flesh (the
feast of Epiphany) to midnight on Fat Tuesday (the day before
Lent)
COURT - this is
the Mardi Gras King, Queen, maids and dukes of a Carnival
organization
DEN - this is
the location where the floats are built and stored
DOUBLOONS -
aluminum objects resembling coins, which bear the insignia of the
krewe on one side and the theme on the other; Rex krewe introduced the
first one in 1960
FAVOR - these
are souvenirs, given to friends or guests attending the krewe's ball
by the members
FLAMBEAUX (plural)
- Naphtha-fueled torches, which used to be the only source of light
along the parade routes; now, they are carried along as part of the
parade
INVITATION -
this term refers to the printed request for attendance to a Carnival
ball
KING CAKE - this
is an oval pastry with a small plastic doll inside; the individual who
finds the doll buys the next king cake
KREWE -
this is a term with Old English flavor, first used by the Krewe of
Comus in 1857 to name a Carnival organization
LUNDI GRAS
(French for Fat Monday) - this is the day before Fat Tuesday; the day
is celebrated with Rex and Zulu.
MARDI GRAS -
this is the day before the beginning of Lent called Fat Tuesday
MARDI GRAS INDIANS
- these are groups of black men in New Orleans dressed as
representations of American Indians; they are outfitted with wonderful
handmade outfits, full of color.
PRALINES
- Purely sweet handmade creole candy, found only in New
Orleans -- a unique taste to the world.
THROWS - the
items thrown from floats by the krewe members; these can be beads,
plastic cups, doubloons, and toys |
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