Mardi Gras |
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Mardi Gras (French for "Fat Tuesday") is the day before Ash Wednesday, and is also called "Shrove Tuesday" or Carnival ("car-nee-VAHL" elsewhere but in New Orleans "CAR-na-val"). It is a celebration that is held just before the beginning of the Christian liturgical season of Lent.
DatesThe date can vary from early February to as late as the second week in March. Like Lent, the date is dependent on that of Easter.
Mardi Gras falls on the following dates in the following years:
2004 - February 24
2005 - February 8
2006 - February 28
2007 - February 20
2008 - February 5
2009 - February 24
2010 - February 16
2011 - March 8
2012 - February 21
2013 - February 12
2014 - March 4
LocationsThe three cities most commonly associated with Mardi Gras are New Orleans (whose carnival has become legendary), Rio de Janeiro (known for having the most ostentatious and licentious carnival), and Venice (whose carnival traditions have their roots in pagan times, and were shaped into what they are today during the Renaissance.) In Quebec the carnival period usually coincided with the coldest days of the year when temperatures dropped to forty degrees below zero, linking it to snow and ice sports. As a result the biggest carnival there, the Quebec City Winter Carnival was eventually moved from a lunar calendar ,set with Easter in mind, to a solar calendar, and other winter carnivals in Quebec followed suit, abandoning the traditional christian dates and placing the midwinter celebration at the end of January and the beginning of February, in order to avoid the danger of a late February or early March meltdown of carnival ice sculptures, ice castles and snow trails.
Carnival is an important celebration in most of Europe (Especially Southern Europe).
In Brazil, the Carnival celebrations in Recife, Olinda, Salvador are well-known, among others. In the Caribbean, Carnival is celebrated in Trinidad and Tobago. (See also Carnival for other celebrations around the world.)
Mobile, Alabama has perhaps the longest tradition of observed Mardi Gras celebration in the United States, and still celebrates it each year. Celebration of Mardi Gras in Mobile dates back to French colonial times. 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. The Mobile Mardi Gras season is always concluded by the Order of Myths parade, produced by the society of the same name. This is a special honor, because the 'double-O M's' are the oldest continuous Mardi Gras society in America. One unique aspect of the Mobile celebrations is the use of Moon Pies, a sweet baked good that combines a graham cracker like crust with marshmallow, and is then covered in a flavored frosting.
New OrleansNew Orleans Mardi Gras is particularly well-known. The celebrations draw many tourists to the city in addition to the celebrating locals for the parties and parades. New Orleans traditions include 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.
Elsewhere in LouisianaOther places in the Greater New Orleans Metro Area also have celebrations, notably the suburb of Metarie, Louisiana has large parades. Without the restrictions on commercial ties to parades of Orleans Parish, there is much advertising and trademark placements on the parades there.
In parts of the Cajun country of South-West Louisiana the traditional Corrir du Mardi Gras is still run, sometimes by maskers on horseback who gather ingredients for making the communal meal.
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, Louisiana and West Monroe, Louisiana by the Krewe of Janus.
AustraliaThe Sydney and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney, Australia, is a well-known pride parade.
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