Animals

Thursday 13 - #7

Thirteen Things about Mardi Gra

Mardi Gra means Fat Tuesday.
The Catholic Church wanted to stop the people from celebrating pagan festivities. They knew it would be very difficult so they changed the celebration to Carnival and made Carnival a time of merriment before the serious Lent season. Carnival was derived from the Latin word carnelevamen which translates as farewell to flesh. Lent is a time for fasting and giving up things because of the crucifixion of Christ. They added the boeuf gras in the 1500s, which stood for the last meat eaten before Lent. The celebration spread from France to all Catholic countries and flourished during the Middle Ages.
Mardi Gras came to North America in 1699 when the French-Canadian explorer Pierre le Monye, Sieur de Iberville was exploring the Mississippi River. He and his men camped on a bend of the river sixty miles south of New Orleans on March 3 and knew Mardi Gras was being celebrated back in France. Iberville decided to christen that point Pointe du Mardi Gras because the celebration was taking place back in his homeland. The point is still known as Pointe du Mardi Gras and the Rex organization put a plaque on the site in 1999 to remember 300 years of Mardi Gras in North America.
New Orleans first celebrated Mardi Gras in 1743 with Governor Marquis de Vaudreuil hosting a Carnival ball. New Orleans' Carnival had many similarities to Carnival in Europe. They were both celebrated privately and publicly by all ranks of people. Europe and New Orleans had Carnival balls and they both marched and celebrated in the streets as well. New Orleans' and Europe's authorities tried to stop the celebration. They both failed because the public enjoyed the celebrations so much. After realizing they could not stop the celebrations, they tried to control them and succeeded.
Mardi Gras was cancelled from 1862 to 1865 because of the Civil War. Comus once again started the parades after the war. Rex first appeared in 1872 to honor Russian Grand Duke Alexis Romanoff. Rex did this because New Orleans did not have any royalty and wanted to grandly welcome the Duke. Rex is the first large, organized daytime parade on Mardi Gras Day and may be the most famous of the New Orleans' krewes. Mardi Gras was cancelled again from 1918 to 1919 and from 1942 to 1945 because of World Wars I and II. In the 1950s, Carnival had a significant change. Tractors replaced the mules that pulled the floats. In 1979, many New Orleans policemen went on strike and thirteen parades were cancelled.
1950- The Duke and Duchess of Windsor visit Mardi Gras (New Orleans) and bow to courts of Rex and Comus.
The doubloon was created by H. Alvin Sharpe and is an aluminum coin with the krewe's symbol and the year established imprinted on it. The doubloon was the first of the krewe specific throws. Most parades have them.
Costumes have been a major part of celebrating Mardi Gras, not just with the krewe, but also with New Orleans' families dressed up as anything. The krewe's court also wears costumes to make them look like they are real monarchs. The krewe members have different costumes annually depending on the title of their float. A New Orleans' law says they must mask and usually the krewe gives them plastic masks. Their costumes are all the same on each float and can be made to look like a person, an animal, or a scene from a story.
The colors of Mardi Gras are purple, gold, and green.
"Throws" are items such as colorful beads, doubloons, moon pies, cups, candy, etc., which are thrown from parade floats or balconies during Mardi Gras.
A "Moon Pie" is a marshmallow sandwiched between two chocolate-covered cookies. Other flavor coverings include vanilla, banana, and coconut. "Moon Pie" is the trademarked name of the Chattanooga bakery in Tennessee. Other pies are more appropriately called "Mardi Gras pies."
A "King Cake" is a colorful cake which contains a plastic doll (baby). The person who gets the slice of King Cake with the baby must provide the next King Cake.
Alasandra likes to eat King Cake's, but she doesn't cook them.

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