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 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:

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.Mardi Gras and The Rio de Janeiro Carnival

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 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 ^*. 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. 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 Carnival

Caribbean

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 in popular culture

Mardi Gras is a critical plot theme of the Jem TV series episode Mardi Gras.
In the video game Blood Money 47 has to kill three assassins during Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
Girls Gone Wild

External links

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