Mardi

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Mardi Gras
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Mardi Gras originally started out as a religious
festival preceding lent, but that has since been
over shadowed by the excitement of a secular
holiday. It is mainly practiced in Louisiana
where there majority of the people are decedents
of the French. It was derived from the French
festival of carnivale.
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Mardi Gras literally means Fat Tuesday in
French. The name comes from the tradition of
parading a fat ox through the streets of Paris on
Strove Tuesday. Strove Tuesday is derived from
shrive which refers to the confession of sin in
preparation for Lent.
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The Mardi Gras season begins on January 6 and
continues until Fat Tuesday. On the Christian
calendar the twelfth day after Christmas, January
6 is known as Epiphany. This is the day the Magi
is said to have visited the baby Jesus. The Mardi
Gras season begins on the day of Epiphany,
January 6, and continues until Fat Tuesday. This
entire time is know as the season of Epiphany.
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The official colors of Mardi Gras are purple,
green, and gold. These were determined by King
of Carnival, Rex in 1872. Purple represents
justice, green represents faith, and gold
represents power.
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Fat Tuesday always comes on the Tuesday before
Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday begins the period
of the Lenten fast for some Christian groups.
The Lenten fast is forty days before Easter and
is an imitation of Christs fast in the
wilderness. On Fat Tuesday, people try to get in
all of their treats before the Lenten fast.
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The two weeks before Fat Tuesday are filled with
parades both day and night, climaxing on Fat
Tuesday with the Rex parade.
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Carnival organizations are called krewes. The
krewes design and give parades during Mardi Gras
season. The first krewe was called Mystick
Krewe of Comus and began in 1857. The second
oldest krewe was started in 1872 and is called
The Krewe of Rex.
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King Cakes were made in a circle to represent the
circular routes that the Wise Men took to find
Jesus. Each King Cake contains one small plastic
baby that represents the Christ Child. If you
are the lucky guest who gets the baby in your
piece of King Cake, you get to hold the
celebration the next year.
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YUM!
King Cakes!
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One custom of Mardi Gras is the custom of throws.
Krewes spend many hours on the production of
beads, trinkets, and doubloons. These items are
then thrown to the crowd from the krewes floats.
Doubloons are coins that usually contain the
symbol of the krewe on one side and the year and
theme of the parade on the other.
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Another tradition is the wearing of masks. This
tradition was started back in the ninth and tenth
century when peasants would travel from farm to
farm to beg for food. The mask protected their
identity and dignity.
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Happy Mardi Gras!!