Mardi Gras: History and celebration
Carnival is the subversion party in which ‘social roles get down, the categories are mixed, the opposites are associated and the disorder is easted from the conventional order’ ’. During this festive era the world is reversed to live periodically in a ‘world upside down’. This party that emerged in Christian Europe was transferred by the American continent where it is celebrated with a lot of emotion.
The carnivals of Rio de Janeiro or Salvador de Bahía are well known in Brazil. But, in this essay, I speak of another of the most important carnivals in America, that of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Mardi Gras Carnival in New Orleans: Its origins El Mardi Gras, in Spanish Gasto Tuesday is the last day of the Carnival. The last day in which you can enjoy worldly pleasures, whether culinary or sexual, before the abstinence that marks Lent and Holy Week.
Mardi Gras is celebrated before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent in the Christian liturgy, but in New Orleans this name is associated with the entire Carnival day that begins on Thursday Lardero. The first references to the Mardi Gras Carnival of New Orleans appear in a report by the Spanish colonial government of the year 1781. Although, it is known, that since 1730 this holiday is celebrated. Already for the 1830s the streets of this city were carried with parades of masks, carriages and riders. With the passage of time, this celebration was becoming increasingly popular and began to advertise in advance.
The year 1872 the figure of the King of Carnival was created, who presides over the first parade of the day during the carnivals. Subsequently, in 1875 the day of ‘Gordo Tuesday’ or Thursday Lardero will be seen as a holiday in the state of Louisiana through the law of Mardi Gras. The New Orleans carnival today despite the fact that the carnival begins with Thursday Lardero, in New Orleans a festive atmosphere is already breathed from January 6 because it starts to see floats, dances of masks and the famous’ KingCake ‘, real cakes. That day, the Twelfth Night Revelers organization organizes a mask dance to mark the beginning of the season.
Three weeks before the Carnival, the most intense activities, from the parade organized by the Krewe Du Vieux association, until it reaches its peak, the weekend between Thursday Lardero and Fato Tuesday or Carnival Tuesday. The parades are organized by associations or brotherhoods called Krewes. These, in addition to organizing the parades, are responsible for building their floats, preparing the costumes and buying the objects that throw the public during the parades. All these organizations are financed with their own money or receive donations of very select economic circles.
Comus’ Mistick Krewe is the oldest association that still participates in the New Orleans carnivals. There are many others and each of them has a specific day to parade through the streets of that city in the southern United States. Weekend before carnival at this time New Orleans city is filled with tourists, even duplicate its population. From Friday night and throughout the weekend the city vibrates to the sound of music and is filled with the colorful floats and parades. There are many associations that participate in this carnival and, perhaps, we could highlight that of Sunday night with the great parade of the Bacchus Krewe. In their dozens of floats they are mounted film actors, singers and other famous people. But the party does not end the weekend. On Monday, known as Lundi Gras, a party is organized on the shores of the Mississippi River that lasts all day. At night a huge parade is organized at the hands of Orpheus Krewe who has a different musical theme for all his floats.
Finally, the carnival begins very early with the parade of the King of Carnival. Small organizations celebrate throughout the day until a dance is celebrated in the municipal auditorium of the city in which the King and Queen of Carnival participate. After this act, at midnight, a squad of mounted police clears the streets of the city. Thus, Mardi Gras is over and Lent begins.
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