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Mardi Gras |
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Mardi Gras (mär`dē grä), last day before the fasting season of Lent. It is the French name for Shrove Tuesday Shrove Tuesday, day before Ash Wednesday (the beginning of Lent). In the Latin countries it is the last day of the carnival, called by the French Mardi Gras. ..... Click the link for more information. . Literally translated, the term means "fat Tuesday" and was so called because it represented the last opportunity for merrymaking and excessive indulgence in food and drink before the solemn season of fasting. In the cities of some Roman Catholic countries the custom of holding carnivals for Mardi Gras has continued since the Middle Ages. The carnivals, with spectacular parades, masked balls, mock ceremonials, and street dancing, usually last for a week or more before Mardi Gras itself. Some of the most celebrated are held in New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro, Nice, and Cologne. For a full discussion of this subject, see carnival carnival, communal celebration, especially the religious celebration in Catholic countries that takes place just before Lent. Since early times carnivals have been accompanied by parades, masquerades, pageants, and other forms of revelry that had their origins in ..... Click the link for more information. . Mardi Gras(French: “Fat Tuesday”) Carnival celebrated on or culminating on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. Traditionally, households consumed all the remaining foods that would be forbidden during Lent (e.g., eggs) on that day. It is a one-day event in France, but in the U.S. it lasts several days in New Orleans, where it is marked by parades, street celebrations, and extravagant costumes. Mardi Gras festive day celebrated at the close of the pre-Lenten season in France and in New Orleans. [Fr. and Am. Trad.: EB, VI, 608] See : Gaiety Mardi Gras February-March; two weeks before Ash Wednesday The most flamboyant of Mardi Gras (from the French for "fat Tuesday") celebrations in North America culminates in a riot of parades and throngs of laughing, drinking, dancing people in the streets of New Orleans, La. The Mardi Gras celebrations symbolize New Orleans, "The City that Care Forgot," to most people. The festivities actually start on Jan. 6 ( Epiphany) with a series of private balls. The tempo picks up in the last two weeks of the Carnival season, when the streets ring with 30 separate parades organized by committees called krewes . The parades consist of marching jazz bands and lavishly decorated two-story floats carrying the costumed and masked krewe royalty who toss "throws" to pleading spectators; these are beads or bonbons or the coveted Mardi Gras doubloons. Each of the parades has 15 to 20 floats, all decorated to express a certain theme. Two of the biggest and most elaborate parades, the Krewe of Endymion and the Bacchus parade, take place on the weekend before Mardi Gras. On the day of Mardi Gras, designated the "Day of Un-Rule," the traditional parades spotlight Rex, King of Carnival and Monarch of Merriment, in the morning, and Comus, God of Revelry, by torchlight at night. On that same evening the private balls of Rex and Comus are held. At midnight, the madness of Carnival ends, and Lent begins, and a million or so spectators and participants face sobriety. New Orleans had its first organized Mardi Gras parade in 1857. It consisted of two floats and was presented by the first Carnival society, the Mistick Krewe of Comus, its name alluding to John Milton's masque, Comus . The parade was apparently well received; it was one of the first local institutions revived after the Civil War. Mardi Gras in New Orleans is the best known, but not the oldest Mardi Gras. A two-week pre-Lenten celebration in Mobile, Ala., stands alone as the oldest celebration of Mardi Gras in the country. It was first observed in 1703 by the French who had founded the port city the year before. When the Spanish occupied Mobile in 1780, they moved it to the eve of the Twelfth Night of Christmas and paraded in grotesque costumes and masks. The celebrations were suspended during the Civil War, but were revived in 1866 by Joe Cain, a town clerk who togged himself out as an Indian chief and rode through the streets in a charcoal wagon. The old Mardi Gras societies reappeared, and new ones evolved. Today a different mystic society parades each evening in the two weeks before Lent, and balls are held that are open to everyone. Mardi Gras itself, the day before Ash Wednesday, is a legal holiday in the state of Louisiana. Galveston, Texas, has a 12-day period of whoop-de-do leading up to the actual day of Fat Tuesday in this barrier-island city of Texas. About 200,000 spectators are attracted to the Mardi Gras festival, which was first held here in 1867. Though it died out at the turn of the century, it was revived in 1985. Growing bigger every year, this celebration features masked balls, royal coronations, Cajun dances, jazz performances, and, of course, numerous parades with dramatic floats. See also Carnival and Shrove Tuesday CONTACTS: New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau 2020 St. Charles Ave. New Orleans, LA 70130 800-672-6124 or 504-566-5011; fax: 504-566-5046 www.neworleanscvb.com Mobile Convention and Visitors Corporation 1 S. Water St. P.O. Box 204 Mobile, AL 36602 800-566-2453 or 251-208-2000; fax: 251-208-2060 www.mobile.org Mardi Gras Galveston official site Galveston Island Convention and Visitors Bureau Visitor Information Center Galveston, TX 77550 888-425-4753 mardigrasgalveston.com SOURCES: AmerBkDays-2000, p. 128 BkFestHolWrld-1970, p. 32 DictFolkMyth-1984, p. 193 EncyEaster-2002, p. 364 FolkAmerHol-1999, p. 88 GdUSFest-1984, p. 5 RelHolCal-2004, p. 91 Celebrated in: France Mardi Gras (France) Between February 3 and March 9; Tuesday before Ash Wednesday Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) is the last day of Carnival, the three-day period of uninhibited celebration that precedes Lent. The festivities in France are particularly colorful in southern cities like Cannes, Menton, and Grasse, all in Alpes-Maritimes department, where people go out in the streets in costume and indulge in all sorts of noisy pranks, such as tooting tin horns and pelting passersby with confetti and flowers. Each town, in fact, has its own bataille de fleurs (battle of flowers) right before Lent, with people in flower-decked cars and floats driving for hours along the streets and boulevards, throwing flowers at each other. One of the great celebrations of Europe is the carnival at Nice, where grotesque, caricatured figures parade down the Avenue de la Gare—among them giant cabbages and carrots, gnomes, devils on horseback, nymphs, and fairies. King Carnival, dressed in striped hose and a slashed doublet, leads the parade from his throne on a float draped with purple velvet. On the night of Mardi Gras, the King Carnival effigy is burned at the stake. In Paris and some other French cities, butchers observe Carnival with the fÉte of the Boeuf Gras, or Fat Ox. An ox decked with garlands of greenery, flowers, and ribbons is led through the streets in procession, followed by a triumphal cart bearing a young boy known as the "King of the Butchers." The crowd pays tribute to him by blowing horns and throwing confetti, flowers, and sweets. See also Nice Carnaval CONTACTS: French Government Tourist Office 444 Madison Ave., Fl. 20 New York, NY 10022 800-391-4909 or 212-838-7800; fax: 212-838-7855 www.franceguide.com SOURCES: BkFest-1937, p. 120 BkFestHolWrld-1970, p. 33 FestWestEur-1958, p. 34 Celebrated in: France Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content. |
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