Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras (Also known as Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday)
Costumed musicians, New Orleans
Type	Local, cultural, Catholic
Significance	Celebration prior to fasting season of Lent.
2012 date	February 211
Celebrations	Parades, parties
Related to	Carnival

The terms "Mardi Gras" (pronounced /ˈmɑrdiɡrɑː/), "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season",^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and ending on the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday" (in ethnic English tradition, Shrove Tuesday), referring to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season, which started on Ash Wednesday. Related popular practices were associated with celebrations before the fasting and religious obligations associated with the penitential season of Lent. Popular practices included wearing masks and costumes, overturning social conventions, dancing, sports competitions, parades, etc. Similar expressions to Mardi Gras appear in other European languages sharing the Christian tradition. In English, the day is called Shrove Tuesday, associated with the religious requirement for confession before Lent begins.

In many areas, the term "Mardi Gras" has come to mean the whole period of activity related to the celebratory events, beyond just the single day. In some US cities, it is now called "Mardi Gras Day" or "Fat Tuesday".^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} The festival season varies from city to city, as some traditions consider Mardi Gras the entire period between Epiphany or Twelfth Night and Ash Wednesday.^[7] Others treat the final three-day period before Ash Wednesday as the Mardi Gras.^[8] In Mobile, Alabama, Mardi Gras-associated social events begin in November, followed by mystic society balls on Thanksgiving,^[7][9] then New Year's Eve, followed by parades and balls in January and February, celebrating up to midnight before Ash Wednesday. In earlier times parades were held on New Year's Day.^[7] Other cities famous for Mardi Gras celebrations include Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Quebec City, Quebec in Canada; Mazatlan in Mexico; and New Orleans, Louisiana in the United States. Many other places have important Mardi Gras celebrations as well.

Carnival is an important celebration in Catholic European nations. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the week before Ash Wednesday is called "shrovetide", ending on Shrove Tuesday. It has its popular celebratory aspects as well. Pancakes are a traditional food. Pancakes and related fried breads or pastries made with sugar, fat and eggs are also traditionally consumed at this time in many parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Belgium

In the Belgian city of Binche the Mardi Gras festival is the most important day of the year and the summit of the Carnival of Binche. Around 1000 Gilles can be found dancing throughout the city from morning till well past dusk, whilst traditional carnival songs play. In 2003, the "Carnival of Binche" was proclaimed one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

Canada

Mardi Gras celebrations are common throughout the country, especially in major cities like Toronto, St. John's, Vancouver, and Montreal.

Quebec

French-speaking Quebec is the province where Mardi Gras is most widely celebrated in Canada. Quebec City and Montreal hold Mardi Gras celebrations, with events such as music festivals, comedy festivals, food festivals, and street parties.^[10]

Quebec City is also famous for the Quebec Winter Carnival, which usually starts on the first Friday of January and continues for 17 days. With close to one million participants, it has grown to become the largest winter celebration in the world.^[11] Festival events include a winter amusement park, with attractions such as skiing, snow rafting, and snow sled-slides.

Germany

The celebration of Mardi Gras in Germany is called Karneval, Fastnacht, or Fasching.^[12] Fastnacht means "Eve of the Beginning of the Fast", and is celebrated the day before Ash Wednesday.

The most famous parades are held in Cologne, Mainz, and Düsseldorf on the Monday before Ash Wednesday, called Rosenmontag.

Italy

Carnevale is the traditional pre-Lenten celebration in Italy. This is a time of merry-making, masquerade processions, masked balls, parades, pageants, jugglers, magicians, stilt walkers, elegant costumes and opulent masks, singing and dancing, fireworks, and outdoor feasts in the weeks prior to Ash Wednesday. The festivities of the last days of carnevale are the most intense as they culminate on Martedí Grasso (Mardi Gras or Shrove Tuesday). There are traditional foods and dolci (sweets) distinctively associated with carnevale, including fritelle, crespelle, sfingi, castagnole, cenci, nodi, chiacchere, bugie, galani, fritole, berlingaccio, sanguinaccio and tortelli, among others.

In Milan Mardi Gras is not the climax of Carnival, since the Carnival lasts four more days, ending on the Saturday after Ash Wednesday, because of the Ambrosian rite. The last day of Carnival, therefore, is the "Sabato grasso" (Shrove or Fat Saturday).

Netherlands

The Netherlands also has a festival similar to Mardi Gras. It's called Carnaval and is similar to the Venice Carnival. The meaning of the word Carnaval is 'Carne Vale' which means Goodbye to the meat in Latin. It marks the beginning of the sacred period that leads to Easter.

The real festival is held in the southern provinces of the Netherlands, which are Limburg & Noord-Brabant.

Sweden

In Sweden the celebration is called Fettisdagen. It comes from the word "fett" (fat) and "tisdag" (Tuesday). Originally, this was the only day one should eat semlor (skinny Tuesday buns). These are now sold in most grocery stores and bakeries preceding the holiday, and up until Easter.

United States

Mardi Gras 2009 Celebrations in the French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana USA (Picture taken outside Molly's Pub on Decatur Street)

While not observed nationally throughout the United States, a number of traditionally ethnic French cities and regions in the country have notable celebrations. Mardi Gras arrived in North America as a French Catholic tradition with the Le Moyne brothers,^[13] Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, in the late 17th century, when King Louis XIV sent the pair to defend France's claim on the territory of Louisiane, which included what are now the U.S. states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.^[13]

The expedition, led by Iberville, entered the mouth of the Mississippi River on the evening of March 2, 1699, Lundi Gras. They did not yet know it was the river explored and claimed for France by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in 1683. The party proceeded upstream to a place on the west bank about 60 miles downriver from where New Orleans is today, and made camp. This was on March 3, 1699, Mardi Gras, so in honor of this holiday, Iberville named the spot Point du Mardi Gras (French: "Mardi Gras Point") and called the nearby tributary Bayou Mardi Gras. Bienville went on to found the settlement of Mobile, Alabama in 1702 as the first capital of French Louisiana.^[14] In 1703 French settlers in Mobile began the Mardi Gras celebration tradition.^[13][15][16] By 1720, Biloxi had been made capital of Louisiana. The French customs had already accompanied colonists who settled there.^[13]

In 1723, the capital of Louisiana was moved to New Orleans, founded in 1718.^[14] The tradition has expanded to the point that it became strongly associated with the city in popular perception, and embraced by residents of New Orleans beyond those of French or Catholic heritage. Mardi Gras celebrations are part of the basis of the slogan, Laissez les bon temps rouler, (Let the good times roll) and the nickname "Big Easy".^[13] Mobile, Alabama, the former capital of New France, also has a long tradition of celebrating Mardi Gras. Other cities along the Gulf Coast formerly occupied and owned by the French from Pensacola, Florida, and its suburbs to Lafayette, Louisiana, have active Mardi Gras celebrations. In the rual Acadiana area, many Cajuns celebrate with the Courir de Mardi Gras, a tradition that dates to medieval celebrations in France.^[17] In more recent times several other U.S. cities without a French heritage have instituted a kind of Mardi Gras celebration; for instance, the UETA Jamboozie festival is held late January in Laredo, Texas.

See also

• Joie de vivre
• Laissez les bons temps rouler
• James Gill's Mardi Gras research
• Gulf Coast Carnival Association

References

External links

• Traditional Cajun Mardi Gras Celebrations
• Mardi Gras in Mobile, Encyclopedia of Alabama
• Prof. Carl Nivale's Compleat Carnival Compendium and Mardi Gras Manual
• Mardi Gras 2009 celebration photos
• Where to Celebrate Mardi Gras Around the World - slideshow by The Guardian