Holiday Mardi Gras is celebrated in Southern Louisiana, including the city of New Orleans. The celebration was concentrated for about two weeks before and through Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday (early lent in Western Christian tradition). There is usually one big parade every day (weather permitting); some days have some great parades. The largest and most complex parade lasts the last five days of the Mardi Gras season. In the last week, many events took place throughout New Orleans and surrounding communities, including parades and balls (some of them undercover).
The parade in New Orleans is organized by a social club known as a crew; mostly following the same parade schedule and route every year. The earliest Krews were Mistick Krewe of Comus, the earliest, Rex, Knights of Momus and Krewe of Proteus. Some of the modern "super krewes" are famous for hosting large parades and events, such as the Krewe of Endymion (best known for calling celebrities a great marshal for their parade), Krewe of Bacchus (also known as celebrity names as Kings), as well as Zulu Social Aid & amp; Fun Club - an African-American-dominated krewe. Float riders traditionally throw throws into the crowd. The most common throws are the strands of colorful plastic beads, doubloon (aluminum or coins the size of a wooden dollar usually impressed with the krewe logo), decorated with plastic "throwing cups", Pie Bulan, and cheap toys, but throws can also include underwear and more dirty stuff. Major krewes follow the same parade schedule and route every year.
While many tourists center their Carnival season activities on Bourbon Street and in New Orleans and the Dauphin, large parades come from the Uptown and Mid-City districts and follow the route along St. Louis. Charles Avenue and Canal Street, on the upstream side of the French Quarter.. Mardi Gras day traditionally ends with a "Court Meeting" between Rex and Comus.
Video Mardi Gras in New Orleans
History
The first record of Mardi Gras celebrated in Louisiana was at the mouth of the Mississippi River at the now lower Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, on March 2, 1699. Iberville, Bienville, and their people celebrated it as part of a Catholic practice celebration. The date of the first celebration of celebrations in New Orleans is unknown. Account 1730 by Marc-Antione Caillot celebrates with music and dance, masking and costume (including cross-dressing). [1] An account from 1743 that Carnival ball habits have been established. Procession and mask usage on the streets of Mardi Gras. They are sometimes prohibited by law, and are quickly renewed whenever these restrictions are revoked or law enforcement is reduced. In 1833, Bernard Xavier de Marigny de Mandeville, the owner of a rich plantation of French descent, raised money to finance the official celebration of Mardi Gras.
James R. Creecy in his book Scene in the South, and Various Other Types describes New Orleans Mardi Gras in 1835:
Shrove Tuesday is a day to be remembered by strangers in New Orleans, for it is a day for fun, playfulness and undercover comics. All city misbehavior lives and is awake in active operation. Men and boys, girls and girls, bonded and free, white and black, yellow and brown, exert themselves to create and perform in strange, weird, cruel, horrible, weird and disguised masks. The human body is seen with the heads of animals and birds, animals and birds with human heads; demi-animal, demi-ikan, serpent head and body with ape arm; the bat man of the moon; Mermaid; satyrs, beggars, monks, and parade robbers and marching on foot, horseback riding, on carts, carts, coaches, cars, & amp; c., in rich confusion, up and down the streets, screaming wildly, singing, laughing, playing drums, stirring, ravishing, and all throwing flour as they walk recklessly.
In 1856, six businessmen gathered in a club room in the French Quarter in New Orleans to organize a secret society to observe Mardi Gras with a formal parade. They founded the first and oldest krewe of New Orleans, the Mystick Krewe of Comus. According to one historian, "Comus is an aggressive Englishman in celebration of what New Orleans has always regarded as a French festival." It is hard to think of a clearer statement from this parade that the lead in the holidays has passed from French speakers to Anglo-Americans. To a certain extent, the Americanized 'Americanized' New Orleans and Creoles, to a certain extent, New Orleans 'inspired' America.Thus Anglo-American wonders boast about how their business power helps them build more complicated versions than traditional.Peads in Carnival who organized downgraded from Creole to America just as much as political and economic power during the nineteenth century. The Creole-American Carnival Views, with Americans using Carnival forms to compete with Creole in the ballroom and on the streets, representing New Orleans cultural creations, not entirely from Creole and America. "
In 1875 Louisiana declared Mardi Gras the state's official holiday. War, economic, political and weather conditions sometimes led to the cancellation of some or all of the major parades, especially during the American Civil War, World War I and World War II, but the city always celebrated Carnival.
1972 was the last year in which a large parade passed the narrow streets in the French Quarter section of the city; problems of floating, crowd, and greater fire security caused the city government to ban parades in the Quarter. Large parades now round the French Quarter along Canal Street.
In 1979 the New Orleans police department went on strike. The official parade is canceled or moved to surrounding communities, such as Jefferson Parish. Tourists are fewer than usual to come to town. Masking, costumes, and celebrations continued, with National Guard troops keeping order. Guards prevent crimes against persons or property but do not seek to enforce laws governing morality or drug use; for this reason, some in the bohemian community of the French Quarter reminded 1979 of the best Mardi Gras city ever.
In 1991, the New Orleans City Council passed a law requiring social organizations, including Mardi Gras Krewes, to publicly disclose that they do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex or sexual orientation, to obtain parade and other public licenses. Not long after the law was passed, the city demanded that these crews give them a list of memberships, contrary to the longstanding tradition of secrecy and the clear personal nature of these groups. In protest - and since the city claims the parade provides jurisdiction to demand an unofficial membership list - the 19th century kautes Comus and Momus quit parades. Proteus paraded in the 1992 Carnival season but also temporarily suspended the parade, returning to the parade schedule in 2000.
Some organizations bring a lawsuit against the city, challenging the law as unconstitutional. Two federal courts later declared that the regulation constituted an unconstitutional offense against the rights of the First Amendment of free associations, and unwarranted interference with the privacy of regulatory groups. The US Supreme Court refused to hear the city's appeal from this decision.
Today, New Orleans krewes operates under a business structure; membership is open to anyone who pays the dues, and each member can have a place in the floating parade.
The destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina in late 2005 caused some people to question the future of the Mardi Gras city celebrations. Mayor Nagin, re-elected in early 2006, tries to play this sentiment for electoral gains. However, the Carnival economy, and, is too important for the rise of the city.
The city government, basically bankrupt after Hurricane Katrina, encouraged small-scale celebrations to limit tensions to municipal services. However, many krew insist that they want and will be ready for the march, so negotiations between krewe leaders and city officials produce a compromise schedule. It is minimized but less severe than suggested.
The 2006 New Orleans Carnival schedule includes the Krewe du Vieux on its traditional route through Marigny and the French Quarter on February 11, Saturday two weeks before Mardi Gras. There are several parades on Saturday, February 18, and Sunday 19th the week before Mardi Gras. The parade is followed daily from Thursday night through Mardi Gras. In addition to Krewe du Vieux and two Westbank parades through Algeria, all New Orleans parades are confined to Saint Charles Avenue Uptown to Canal Street, part of the city that escapes the great flood. Some crews were not encouraged to parade on their traditional Mid-City route, despite the severe flood damage suffered by the neighborhood.
The city limits how long the parade can get in the way and how late they can end up. National Guard troops are assisted with mass control for the first time since 1979. Louisiana state police are also helpful, as they have been many times in the past. Many buoys have been partially submerged in flood waters for weeks. While some krewes repair and eliminate all traces of this effect, others include flood lines and other damage into the design of the buoy.
Most of the locals who work on buoys and ride them are significantly affected by the storm afterwards. Many lost most or all of their possessions, but the enthusiasm for Carnival was even stronger as an affirmation of life. The themes of many costumes and buoys have a more thorny satire than usual, with remarks about the trials and tribulations of living in a ruined city. References include MREs, Katrina refrigerators and FEMA trailers, along with many mocks from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and local and national politicians.
In the 2009 season, the Endymion parade has returned to the Mid-City route, and other Krewes are expanding their Uptown parade.
Maps Mardi Gras in New Orleans
Traditional color
The colors traditionally associated with Mardi Gras in New Orleans are green, gold and purple. The colors were first specified in a statement by the Rex organization during the eve of their inaugural parade in 1872, indicating that the balcony was wrapped with these color banners. It is not known why these specific colors are selected; some accounts show that they were originally chosen solely on their aesthetic appeal, as opposed to true symbolism.
Errol Laborde, author of Marched the Day God: A History of the Rex Organization, presented the theory that colors are based on symbols; the three colors fall in the color of the tincture, and if Rex's goal is to make tricolor to represent their "kingdom", purple is widely associated with royalty, while white is already widely used on other national flags, and thus avoided. Furthermore, he notes that the flags are green, gold and purple in order to comply with the tincture rules, stating that the metal (gold or silver) can only be placed on or next to other colors, and that colors can not be placed on or next to other colors.
Following the colorful Rex parade in 1892 featuring a purple, green, and gold-themed launcher around concepts, Rex's organization retroactively states that three colors symbolize justice, power and conviction. Traditional colors are generally designated as purple, green, and gold, in that order - even though this order violates the tincture rules.
Contemporary Mardi Gras
Epiphany
Epiphany, on January 6th, has been recognized as the beginning of the New Orleans Carnival season since at least 1900; locally, sometimes known as the Twelfth Night even though this term correctly refers to Epiphany Eve, January 5, the twelfth night of Christmastide. The Twelfth Night Revelers, the second oldest Krewe in New Orleans, has held parade and ball masked on this date since 1870. A number of other groups such as Phunny Phorty Phellows, La Socià © à © tÃÆ' © Pas Si SecrÃÆ'¨te Des Champs -ÃÆ' â € ° lysÃÆ'  © es and Krewe de Jeanne D'Arc recently started holding events in Epiphany as well.
Many of Carnival's oldest societies, such as the Independent Striker Society, hold the masked ball but are no longer paraded in public.
The Mardi Gras season continues through Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday .
Weekend before Mardi Gras Day
The population of New Orleans more than doubled for five days before Mardi Gras Day, in anticipation of the greatest celebration.
Wednesday night begins with Druids, and is followed by Mystic Krewe of Nyx, the latest Krewe woman. Nyx is famous for their highly decorated purses, and has achieved Super Krewe status since its inception in 2011.
Thursday night begins with a parade of all women featuring Krewe of Muses. The parade is relatively new, but its membership has tripled since it started in 2001. It's very popular because of its throws (highly sought after shoes and other trinkets) and themes ridicule politicians and celebrities.
Friday night is a great opportunity Krewe of Hermes and a satirical Krewe D'ÃÆ'â € § tat parade, ending with one of the fastest growing crew, Krewe of Morpheus. There are several smaller neighborhood parades such as Krewe of Barkus and Krewe of OAK.
Some daytime parades roll on Saturdays (including Krewe of Tucks and Krewe of Isis) and on Sundays (Thoth, Okeanos, and Krewe from Mid-City).
The first of the "super crew," Endymion, a parade on Saturday night, with a celebrity-inspired Bacchus parade on Sunday night 1998
Lundi Gras
Monday is known as Lundi Gras ("Fat Monday"). The kings of Zulu Social Aid & amp; The Pleasure Club and the Krewe of Rex, which will march the next day, arrive by boat in the Mississippi Riverfront at the foot of Canal Street, where all-day parties are staged.
Uptown parades began with one of the most prestigious organizations in New Orleans, Krewe of Proteus. Dating with 1882, it was the second oldest krewe still paraded. The Proteus Parade was followed by a newer organization, the super-Krewe of Orpheus music, which was considered less prestigious because it attracted most of its membership from outside New Orleans.
Mardi Gras
The celebrations begin early on Mardi Gras, which can fall on every Tuesday between February 3 and March 9 (depending on the date of Easter, and thus from Ash Wednesday).
In New Orleans, the city center, Zulu's first revolving parade, followed by the Rex parade, both ending on Canal Street. A number of smaller parading organizations with "floating trucks" follow the Rex parade. Many small parades and walking clubs also parade around the city. The Jefferson City Buzzards, the Lyons Club, the Irish Channel Corner Club, the Half Fast Walking Club Pete Fountain and KOE all started in the early days of Uptown and made their way to the French Quarter with at least one jazz band. At the other end of the old city, the Society of Saint Anne travels from Bywater through Marigny and the French Quarter to meet Rex on Canal Street. The Pair-O-Dice Tumblers rambles from bar to bar at Marigny and French Quarter from noon to dusk. The various groups of Mardi Gras Indians, divided into tribes downtown and downtown, marches in their makeup.
For the upcoming Mardi Gras Date until 2050, see Mardi Gras Dates .
Costumes and masks
In New Orleans, costumes and masks were rarely worn by non-Krewe members in the days before Fat Tuesday (other than at parties), but were often imposed on Mardi Gras. The law of resisting conceals a person's identity with a mask suspended for the day. Banks are closed, and some businesses and other places with security issues (such as supermarkets) post signs asking people to remove their masks before entering.
Beads
Inexpensive strings of beads and toys have been thrown from buoys to parade audiences at least since the late 19th century. Until the 1960s, the most common form was the string of colorful glass beads made in Czechoslovakia.
Glass beads are replaced by cheaper and more durable plastic beads, first from Hong Kong, then from Taiwan, and more recently from China. Beads and low-cost toys allow riders to float to buy larger quantities, and throws become more and more common.
In the 1990s, many people lost interest in small, inexpensive beads, often leaving them where they landed on the ground. Larger, more complicated metal beads and strands with figures of animals, people, or other objects have become a sought after throw. 2005 Redi's cultural and economic globalization film David Redmond, Made in China, follows the production and distribution of beads from a small factory in Fuzhou, China to the streets of New Orleans during Carnival. The publications of Redmon's book, Beads Bodies and Trash follow up the documentary by providing an ethnographic analysis of the social hazards, fun, and consequences of toxicity produced by Mardi Gras beads.
With the advent of the 21st century, more sophisticated pitches began to replace simple metallic beads. Krewes began producing limited edition beads and unique plush toys for krewe. The fiber-optic beads and LED-powered gifts are now the most sought after items. In a retro-inspired touch, the glass beads have returned to the parade. Now made in India, glass beads are one of the most valuable throws.
Other Mardi Gras traditions
Social club
The New Orleans social club played a huge part in the celebration of Mardi Gras as the host of many parades in or around Mardi Gras. The two main parades of Mardi Gras, Zulu and Rex, are both social club parades. Zulu is mostly African-American and Rex clubs mostly Caucasian. The social club hosted the Mardi Gras ball, starting in late January. On this social ball, the queen of the parade (usually a young woman between the ages of 18 and 21, unmarried and in high school or college) and the king (older male members of the club) present themselves and their court maids (young women aged 16 to 21), and various younger children's divisions with small roles in balls and parades, such as the theme-beformal neighborhood club ball carnival in the local bar room.
In response to their exclusion from Rex, in 1909 CrÃÆ' ole and New Orleanians were black, led by a reciprocal aid group known as "The Tramp", adorned William Storey with tin cans and banana sticks and named it the Zulu King. This display is intended as a mockery of Rex's excessive reruns, but in time, Zulu becomes a grand parade by itself. In 1949, as an indication of Zulu's prestige increase, krewe named the native son of New Orleans, Louis Armstrong as its king.
Being a member of the court requires a lot of preparation, usually in the next few months. Women and girls should have equipment dressed as early as May before the parade, as soccer season allows little time between each parade. These balls are generally only by invitation. Balls are held in various places in the city, large and small, depending on the size and budget of the organization. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the French Opera House was the main venue for New Orleans balls. From the mid-20th century to Hurricane Katrina, the Municipal Auditorim was the city's most famous site for Carnival balls. In recent years, most are in the ballroom of various hotels throughout the city. The largest "Super Krewes" uses a larger place; Bacchus the Morial Convention Center and Endymion the Superdome.
Doubloons
One of Mardi Gras's many throwing crews is thrown into the crowd, doubloon is a large coin, either wood or metal, made with Mardi Gras colors. Artist H. Alvin Sharpe created a modern doubloon for The School of Design (the real name of the Rex organization). According to Krewe's history, in January 1959 Sharpe arrived at the krewe captain's office with a handful of aluminum discs. Upon entering the office, he throws doubloon into the captain's face to prove that they will be safe to dispose of the buoy. Standard krewe doubloons usually depict the symbols, names, and dates of the founders of Krewe on one side, as well as themes and years of parades and balls on the other. The nobles and court members can throw special omens, such as the special Riding Lieutenant camels that are given by the men riding in the Rex parade. In the last decade, krewes have been printing special doubloons for every float. Krewes also mint doubloons special cloisonnÃÆ' Â © or pure silver for its members. They never threw this off the buoy. The original Rex doubloon is valuable, but it is almost impossible for fans to find authentic doubloon certified. The School of Design did not start displaying their doubloons until several years after their introduction.
Flambeau Operator
The flambeau ("flahm-bo" which means torch-fire) carrier initially, prior to electric lighting, serves as a beacon for the New Orleans parade crowd to enjoy the spectacle of the night rally. The first flambeau carrier was a slave.
Today, flambeaux is a connection to the New Orleans Carnival version and a valuable contribution. Many people see flambeau-carrying as a kind of performing arts - valid judgments given wild and flourishing gyrations displayed by flambeau riders experienced in a parade. Many people are derived from the operator's long line.
Parades that typically feature flambeaux include Babylon, Chaos, Le Krewe d'Etat, Druids, Hermes, Krewe of Muses, Krewe of Orpheus, Krewe of Proteus, Saturn, and Sparta. Flambeaux is powered by naphtha, its highly flammable aroma.
This is a tradition, when flambeau carriers pass during the parade, to throw a quarters at them as a thank-you for carrying the carnival lights. However, in the 21st century, dollar money is a common thing.
Rex
Every year in New Orleans, krewes are responsible for choosing Rex, the carnival king. The Rex organization was formed to create a daytime parade for city dwellers. Moto Rex is, "Pro Bono Publico - for the public good."
Mardi Gras icon
- Comedy and Tragedy Face
- Hairy Mask
- "Laissez les bons temps rouler!" (France: "Let a good time roll up!")
- "Throw me something, sir!"
New Orleans Zulu or Mardi Gras Coconut
One of the most famous and most sought after, is Zulu Coconut which is also known as the Golden Nugget and Mardi Gras Coconut. Coconuts are mentioned as far back as 1910, where they are given in a natural state of "hairy". Coconuts were thrown as a cheap alternative, especially in 1910 when the bead throw was made of glass. Before Krewe from Zulu threw coconuts, they threw a golden walnut painted. This is where the name "Golden Nugget" comes from. It is thought that Zulu switched from walnuts to coconuts in the early 1920s when local painter Lloyd Lucus began painting coconuts. Most of the coconut fruit has two decorations. The first one is painted gold with the addition of glitter, and the second is painted like Zulu's famous black face. In 1988, the city forbade Zulu to throw coconuts because of the risk of injury; they are now left to the audience rather than being thrown. In 2000, a local electronics engineer, Willie Clark, introduced an updated classic version, naming them Mardi Gras Coconuts. The new coconut was first used by the club in 2002, giving souvenirs to the nobles and city elders.
Ojen liqueur
Aguardiente de OjÃÆ' Â © n (es), or just "ojen" ("OH-hen") as it is known in English, is a Spanish anisette traditionally consumed during the New Orleans Mardi Gras celebration. In OjÃÆ'Â nn, the original Spanish city where it was produced, the production stopped for years, but started again in early 2014 through the distillery company Dominique Mertens Impex. S.L.
Exposure and Mardi Gras
Women who showed their breasts during Mardi Gras have been documented since 1889, when The Times-Democrats denounced "the level of impoliteness shown by almost all the tanneries seen on the streets." This practice is largely confined to tourists in the upper Bourbon Street area. In the crowded streets of the French Quarter, generally avoided by locals on Mardi Gras Day, the flash on the balcony causes crowds to gather on the streets.
In the last decades of the twentieth century, increased production of commercial videocassettes for voyeures helped encourage women's traditions to show off their breasts by exchanging beads and knick-knacks. Social scientists who studied "ritual discharge" were found, at Mardi Gras 1991, 1,200 body-baring examples in the exchange of beads or other aids.
End of New Orleans Mardi Gras
The formal end of New Orleans Mardi Gras arrives with "Court Meetings," a ceremony in which Rex and His Royal Consort, the Kings and Queen of Carnival, meet with Comus and His queen, at the Mistick Krewe ball from Comus, the oldest active Carnival organization in New Orleans. The Court meeting took place at the end of a two-group masked ball, which in modern times was held at the Auditorium of New Orleans City. After Hurricane Katrina, the ball has been held at the Marriott Hotel.
Right at midnight at the end of Fat Tuesday, a squad installed by New Orleans police officers made a show of cleaning up Bourbon Street where most of the out-of-town visitors gathered, announcing that Carnival was over, since the start of Lent, starting with Abu Wednesday.
Ash Wednesday (the day after the Big Tuesday) is sometimes jokingly referred to as "Trash Wednesday" due to the amount of garbage left on the streets during the celebrations and excesses of the previous day. The amount of waste taken by the sanitation department is local news, in part because it reflects the positive economic impact of tourist income.
Additional photos
- Faubourg Marigny Mardi Gras Costume
- French Quarter Mardi Gras Costume
See also
- Mardi Gras Mambo
References
External links
- Carnival New Orleans History of Mardi Gras with vintage and modern images
- Mardi Gras Unveils the Definitive Mardi Gras and the history of the king's cake
- The MardiGras.com website is affiliated with New Orleans-Picayune newspaper
- Photo of 2014 Mardi Gras celebration
- Mardi Gras: LIVE at the Famous Parties in America, 1938 - slideshow by Life Magazine
- MardiGrasNewOrleans.com Emphasizes family and traditional aspects
- Prof. Carl Nivale's Compleat Carnival Compendium and Mardi Gras Manual Family-friendly website from WWL-TV historian Carl Nivale
- The fashion plates show the historic Mardi Gras costume from the Metropolitan Art Museum library
- Mardi Gras beads, masks and decorations
- Economic Impact of Mardi Gras Season 2014 by Toni Weiss and Freeman Consulting Group, 2015. Tulane University.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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