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Mardi Gras, also known as Shrove Tuesday or Carnival, is an 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. 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.
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