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:IPA: [kaː(ɹ)nɨvəl] and Romance languages:IPA: [karnaval]). 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 Swedish Fettisdagen (Fat Tuesday) or the Polish Tłusty Czwartek (which translates to Fat Thursday).

Dates

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 – February 20
• 2008 – February 5
• 2009 – February 24
• 2010 – February 16
• 2011 – March 8
• 2012 – February 21
• 2013 – February 12
• 2014 – March 4

Mardi Gras and The Rio de Janeiro Carnival

The 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.

Locations

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 what are now the U.S. states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

The two explorers eventually found the mouth of the Mississippi River, sailed a while upstream and named the spot Point du Mardi Gras (Mardi Gras Point) 60 miles downriver from present-day New Orleans. In 1699, the traditional Catholic celebration ensued leading to what many refer to "North America's first Mardi Gras". Following their European custom, Carnival celebrations took place in all towns and cities in the colony.

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.

Lately Mardi Gras has been taken up by several cities in the U.S. as the event brings much needed revenue to city coffers.

Louisiana

New Orleans

Main article: New Orleans Mardi Gras

New Orleans Mardi Gras is particularly well-known, often called "the greatest free show on earth". The celebrations draw hundreds of thousands of 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 Carnival organizations called 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 begins on the 12th day after Christmas. Most parades, balls and other festivities never occur on weeknights and weekends in the 2-week period before Mardi Gras Day. Though each parade is different, there are certain common ingredients: 1) There is a king on each float, picked from among the Krewe membership; 2) gaily colored floats, ridden by masked and costumed Krewe members, who throw various items, including necklaces (beads), metal coins called doubloons bearing the official emblem and often, that year's parade's grand marshals name, and assorted other fun items; marching bands from local high schools and universities, but often other invited guest bands.

The oldest parading krewes include those of Rex, "King of the Carnival," who has reigned since 1872, and Zulu, founded in 1909, both of whom parade for a half-million or more spectators along a six mile-long route on Shrove Tuesday morning each year. Oldest of the night parades is the Krewe of Proteus, founded in 1882, and which rolls to the light of old-fashioned flambeaux on Lundi Gras (Fat Monday), which is the Monday night before Mardi Gras. New Orleans' parades include anywhere from 14 to 30 or more floats. "Truck parades" of huge, decorated trucks often have more than 100 entries. Other parades are held by "walking clubs," consisting of maskers promendading to the blare of the city's famous jazz bands.

Particularly since the inception of the larger parade organizations (sometimes called "super krewes") such as Bacchus, Endymion and Orpheus, it has become fashionable to invite Hollywood and other celebrities to act as Grand Marshals for parades.

As many as 100,000 Mardi Gras revelers are estimated to throng Bourbon Street in New Orleans' historic French Quarter each Fat Tuesday to view often outrageous costume contests and celebrate until the stroke of midnight, which signals the end of Carnival and the beginning of the penitential season of Lent.

In addition to parades and other public observances, New Orleans is the scene of exclusive and elaborate masked, tableau balls held by most of the parading krewes and other organizations which limit their activities only to balls. Usually invitation-only affairs, many of the balls feature the presentation of the city's debutantes.

New Roads

New Roads, Louisiana hosts the state's oldest Mardi Gras celebration outside New Orleans. This historic and charming Creole town of 5,500, located 35 minutes northwest of Baton Rouge on False River, attracts as many as 75,000 people each Shrove Tuesday for a family-friendly celebration. The Community Center Carnival Club parade, founded in 1922 and Louisiana's oldest outside New Orleans, rolls at 11 a.m. The New Roads Lions Carnival parade, founded in 1941 and which is staged as a charitable fundraiser, rolls at 1:30 p.m. Each parade consists of 25-30 floats built fresh each year, eight-ten marching bands and drill units and tons of trinket "throws" including beads, cups and small toys. Unlike the exclusiveness of formal krewes, New Roads' parade particiaption is open to the public, with schools, churches, clubs, businesses and families building and riding the floats. The Mardi Gras in New Roads, Louisiana website: [1] contains history and images of this unique Mardi Gras event.

Lafayette

Lafayette, Louisiana is home to a large Mardi Gras celebration which includes eight parades of floats and bands during the Carnival season. An annual event since 1934, it is generally a family-oriented event lacking the perceived decadence of its New Orleans cousin. Lafayette Mardi Gras royalty, chosen from civic leaders and debutantes, includes King Gabriel and Queen Evangeline of the Southwest Louisiana Carnival Association and King Toussaint L'Overture and Queen Simone Simonet of the Lafayette Mardi Gras Festival. Hollywood celebrities have served as Grand Marshals. Lafayette is geographically the heart of Cajun Country, and as such draws Cajuns and Creoles from the surrounding area to participate in Mardi Gras festivities. Attendance at the three parades held on Shrove Tuesday itself is estimated around 200,000 by law enforcement officials. Visitors enjoy the Cajun hospitality and cuisine in addition to the parades. 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 have large parades. Without the restrictions on commercial sponsorship of parades seen in Orleans Parish, there is much advertising and trademark placements on the parades in Metairie. Metairie parades also tend to be more family-oriented, and even include a children's parade.

Houma, Louisiana hosts a significant Mardi Gras celebration of nine parades, three of which roll on Shrove Tuesday, and the others on the two weekends preceding the big day. Oldest of the parading organizations or krewes is the Krewe of Houmas, which has rolled since 1948 and attracts about 70,000 spectators on Mardi Gras afternoon. The nearby town of Thibodaux, Louisiana has celebrated Mardi Gras each year since 1955. There, the Carnival calendar includes five parades, the oldest being the Krewe of Chronos and which attracts about 20,000 parade- goers. The Krewe of Cleophas, held on the Sunday afternoon preceding Mardi Gras in Thibodaux, is one of the nation's longest, with more than 40 floats being featured. Lake Charles, in southwest Louisiana, hosts a Krewe of Krewes parade, which is billed as the second largest parade in the state. It also hosts parades for children and even pets. Many other cities and towns throughout southern Louisiana are the scene of Mardi Gras parades in the weeks leading up to Shrove Tuesday and some also on that day. These communities include Covington, Mandeville, Golden Meadow, Lockport, Larose, Grand Isle, Morgan City, Berwick, Patterson, Jeanerette, Grand Marais, New Iberia, St. Martinville, Franklin, Sunset, Opelousas, Baton Rouge, Bogalusa, Port Allen, Addis, Livonia, Maringouin and Norwood. Tens of thousands of revelers attend Baton Rouge's satirical Spanish Town parade on the Saturday before Mardi Gras.

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). Participants 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.

By the close of the 20th century, the celebration of Mardi Gras spread to North Louisiana, including parades in Shreveport, Louisiana by the Krewe of Centaur and the Krewe of Gemini and in Monroe and West Monroe by the Krewe of Janus. Alexandria also celebrates with parades and days of celebration.Other cities aswell hold Mardi Gras parades.These cities include:Minden, Springhill, Nachotches,and Columbia. Mardi Gras is one of the exceptions to the Louisiana law against wearing hoods and masks in public, the other two being Halloween and religious beliefs.

Galveston

Galveston, Texas is home to a large Mardi Gras festival, the Island tradition begun in 1867, and which is held in the historic Strand District on Galveston Island on the Texas Gulf Coast. The first year that Mardi Gras was celebrated on a grand scale in Galveston was 1871 with the emergence of two rival Mardi Gras societies, or "Krewes" called the Knights of Momus (known only by the initials "K.O.M.") and the Knights of Myth, both of which devised night parades, masked balls, exquisite costumes and elaborate invitations. The Knights of Momus, led by some prominent Galvestonians, decorated horse-drawn wagons for a torch lit night parade. Boasting such themes as "The Crusades," "Peter the Great," and "Ancient France," the procession through downtown Galveston culminated at Turner Hall with a presentation of tableaux and a grand gala. The annual event draws 250,000 revelers from all over Texas (predominately the Houston metro) to Galveston Island each year.

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]. It is said to have originated in Mobile. 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 since 1868. This is a special honor, because the 'double-O M's' are one of the oldest continuously parading Mardi Gras society in America. Other parading organizations of long-standing include the Infant Mystics, an annual event since 1874 and who roll on the Monday evening prior to Mardi Gras; the Knights of Revelry, who have rolled at midday on Fat Tuesday since 1875; and the satirical Comic Cowboys, who have paraded on Mardi Gras afternoon since 1884. Mobile Mardi Gras royalty includes King Felix, who has reigned since 1872, and his queen, as well as the king and queen of the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association. Each of Mobile's more than two dozen parades draw, according to careful police estimates, anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 spectators. During these parades - held on Mardi Gras itself and in the three weeks preceding it - masked and costumed float riders toss 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). While most parading societies also hold elaborate balls, other societies stage balls only, such as the city's oldest mystic society, 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, candies & Krewe related trades. Pensacola holds two Mardi Gras parades a year. The Annual Krewe of Lafitte Mardi Gras Parade on Friday night will roll through the streets of downtown, as the only privately funded nighttime parade in the Pensacola area. With a much larger Pensacola Grand Mardi Gras Parade held on Saturday during the day that any Krewe can participate in. The surrounding island cities also hold their own parades throughout the Mardi Gras season.

St. Louis

Soulard hosts the St. Louis Mardi Gras festival, generally attracting between 500,000 and 600,000 people and growing each year^{citation needed]}. The event is much like the New Orleans celebration in that it hosts several parades during the Mardi Gras season. On the second Saturday before Mardi Gras, there is a family-oriented "Krewe of Barkus" pet parade. Participants consist of anyone who dresses up their pet in costume, and walks their pet along the parade route. The parade is followed by the informal Wiener dog races. Then, on the Saturday before Fat Tuesday, the more adult-oriented flesh-for-beads parade occurs, although there have been various attempts to reserve a family section at one end of the route. People from all over come to storm the streets with beers and bead necklaces after the Saturday parade. The streets of Soulard, Geyer, Allen, Russell, Ann, Shenandoah, and others are crowded with people from 7th to 12th Street. The Fat Tuesday parade occurs in the evening, and in recent years has been moved just north of Soulard to downtown St. Louis.^{citation needed]}

Port Arthur

Port Arthur, Texas Is the home to a very fast-growing Mardi Gras celebration. It began in 1992.^{citation needed]}

San Diego

As of 2005, there is a corporate sponsored party in the Gaslamp Quarter of downtown San Diego.^{citation needed]}

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.

Brazil

In Brazil, the Carnival celebrations in Recife, Olinda, Salvador are well-known, among others, most notably Rio de Janeiro.

See: Brazilian Carnival

Caribbean

In the Caribbean, Carnival is celebrated on a number of islands:Aruba, Barbados, Dominica,Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago are some of the celebrants.

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. There is also a week-long Carnival or Mardi Gras celebration in MeridaYucatan.

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.

Venice

Along with New Orleans Mardi Gras, and Carnival in Rio de Janeiro the Venetian Carnival is one of the three most famous Mardi Gras/Carnival celebrations in the world. It is a lavish celebration.

Argentina

Carnival is celebrated in several Argentinean cities in the subtropical northeast. Carnival in Buenos Aires is notable for the dancing murga troupes.

Uruguay

Montevideo hosts a large and lively Carnival, especially in its southern barrios.

Ecuador

Carnival is celebrated in several Ecuadorian cities. Carnival in this country is characterized by the soaking of people mainly via the use of water balloons. The celebrations tend to last through a four day holiday weekend.

Slovenia

In Slovenia is called Kurentovanje. Its from word Kurent and its a name of the mask, made of sheep skin, richly decorated and they make noise with bells attached on hips. Its also traditional to eat doughnuts.

Mardi Gras in popular culture

• Mardi Gras is integral to the plot of the Jem episode "Mardi Gras".
• In the video game Hitman: Blood Money, 47 has to kill three assassins during Carnival in New Orleans.
• New Orleans during Carnival season is a playable level in the video game Tony Hawk's Underground 2.
• Bam Margera and his friends visit New Orleans in a Season 2 episode of Viva La Bam.
• New Orleans during Carnival is a destination in the 1969 movie "Easy Rider".
• An episode of The Jamie Kennedy Experiment was filmed on Johnny White's Bourbon Street balcony during Carnival.
• The Simpson's Spinoff Showcase, a special episode of The Simpsons features a segment set at the time of Mardis Gras in New Orleans.
• Paul Simon's album, There goes Rhymin' Simon features a song called 'Take Me to the Mardis Gras'.