Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras History | More Mardi Gras History | Mardi Gras in Mobile Alabama | Galveston, TX Mardi Gras


Mardi Gras History
Mardi Gras came to New Orleans through its French heritage in 1699. Early explorers celebrated this French Holiday on the banks of the Mississippi River. Throughout the years, Orleanians have added to the celebration by establishing krewes (organizations) which host parades and balls. Carnival quickly became an exciting holiday for both children and adults.

Mardi Gras means "Fat Tuesday" and of course is celebrated on that day of the week. The date can fall between February 3 and March 9 depending on the Lunar calendar, used by the Catholic Church to determine the date of Easter. Mardi Gras is always 47 days before Easter Sunday.

The official colors for Mardi Gras are purple, green, and gold. These colors were chosen in 1872 by the King of Carnival, Rex. He chose these colors to stand for the following:

Purple represents justice
green stands for faith
gold stands for power

The Mardi Gras season begins on January 6 and continues until Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. On the Christian calendar, the twelfth day after Christmas is known as "Epiphany", "Twelfth Night", or "Kings Day." It is the day the gift-bearing Magi visited the baby Jesus, and is celebrated with its own unique rituals.

http://www.holidays.net/mardigras/story.htm

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More Mardi Gras History
article by Jim Davis

Origins
The history of Mardi Gras began long before Europeans set foot in the New World. In mid February the ancient Romans celebrated the Lupercalia, a circus like festival not entirely unlike the Mardi Gras we are familiar with today. When Rome embraced Christianity, the early Church fathers decided it was better to incorporate certain aspects of pagan rituals into the new faith rather than attempt to abolish them altogether. Carnival became a period of abandon and merriment that preceded the penance of Lent, thus giving a Christian interpretation to the ancient custom.

Mardi Gras came to America in 1699 with the French explorer Iberville. Mardi Gras had been celebrated in Paris since the Middle Ages, where it was a major holiday. Iberville sailed into the Gulf of Mexico, from where he launched an expedition up the Mississippi River. On March 3 of 1699, Iberville had set up a camp on the west bank of the river about 60 miles south of where New Orleans is today. This was the day Mardi Gras was being celebrated in France. In honor of this important day, Iberville named the site Point du Mardi Gras.

The Late Eighteenth Century
During the late 1700's, pre-Lenten masked balls and festivals were common in New Orleans while it was under French rule. However when New Orleans came under Spanish rule the custom was banned. In 1803 New Orleans came under the U.S. flag. The prohibition against masked festivals continued until 1823 when the Creole populace convinced the governor to permit masked balls. In 1827 street masking was again legalized.

The Nineteenth Century
During the early 1800's public celebrations of Mardi Gras centered around maskers on foot, in carriages and on horseback. The first documented parade occurred in 1837. Unfortunately, Mardi Gras gained a negative reputation because of violent behavior attributed to maskers during the 1840's and 50's. The situation became so bad that the press began calling for an end to the celebration.

In 1857 six New Orleaneans saved Mardi Gras by forming the Comus organization. These six men were former members of the Cowbellians, an organization which had put on New Year's Eve parades in Mobile since 1831. The Comus organization added beauty to Mardi Gras and demonstrated that it could be a safe and festive event. Comus was the first organization to use the term krewe to describe itself. Comus also started the customs of having a secret Carnival society, having a parade with a unifying theme with floats, and of having a ball after the parade. Comus was also the first organization to name itself after a mythological character. The celebration of Mardi Gras was interrupted by the Civil War, but in 1866 Comus returned.

In 1870 the Twelfth Night Revelers made their appearance. In 1871 they began the custom of presenting a young woman with a golden bean hidden in a cake. This young woman was the first queen of Mardi Gras. This was also the origin of the king cake tradition.

In 1872 Grand Duke Alexis Romanoff of Russia visited New Orleans. This year the krewe of Rex made their debut and began the tradition of the "King of Carnival." Rex also introduced purple, gold and green as the official colors of Mardi Gras. Rex was the first krewe to hold an organized daytime parade and introduced "If Ever I Cease To Love" as the Mardi Gras anthem. One of the high points of Rex is the arrival of the Rex King on a riverboat. 1872 also saw the debut of the Knights of Momus on New Year's Eve.

Ten years later in 1882, the Krewe of Proteus made its debut with a parade themed after Egyptian mythology. In 1890 the first marching club, The Jefferson City Buzzards, was organized. In 1894, the Original Illinois Club was formed as the first black Mardi Gras organization. In 1896 Les Mysterieuses appeared as the first female organization.

Mardi Gras in the Twentieth Century
In 1809 Zulu appeared as a parody of Rex. The Zulu King held a banana stalk scepter and wore a lard can crown. He arrived on on oyster lugger instead of a steamboat. Zulu was destined to become one of the most popular and beloved of all krewes.

Mardi Gras was canceled during the dark years of 1918 and 1919 when the United States was involved in the bloody fighting of the First World War. The celebration struggled through the 1920's and early 30's, which saw Prohibition and The Great Depression.

The krewe of Alla brought carnival to the West Bank in 1934.

With the rise of mass produced automobiles, random truck riders had become part of the Mardi Gras scene. In 1835 they organized themselves into the Elkes Krewe of Orleanians. The Krewe of Hermes appeared in 1937 and the Knights of Babylon in 1939.

Mardi Gras prospered during the 1940's, although it was canceled during the war years. In 1949 Louis Armstrong was King of the Zulu parade and was pictured on the cover of time magazine.

In 1950 the Duke and Duchess of Windsor visited New Orleans during Mardi Gras. They honored the New Orleans Mardi Gras tradition by bowing to kings of Rex and Comus at the Comus ball. The Korean War put a damper on festivities in 1951, but several krewes joined forces to parade as the Krewe of Patria on Mardi Gras day. The Fifties also saw the replacement of mule drawn floats with ones drawn by tractors and the formation of several new krewes including Zeus. Zeus was the first krewe to parade in Metairie.

In 1961 Pete Fountain founded the Half-Fast Walking Club, an immediate hit with the crowds. Zulu came under pressure from portions of the black community who thought the krewe presented an undignified image. The king resigned and the parade was almost cancelled, but Zulu survived and was a main attraction by 1969. The Sixties ended with the debut of Bacchus. Bacchus aimed to bring national attention to Mardi Gras with gigantic floats and a Hollywood celebrity (Danny Kaye) riding as its king. Bacchus replaced the traditional ball with a supper to which tickets could be purchased by visitors and locals.

The Seventies saw the debut of 18 new krewes and the demise of 18 others. More than a dozen krewes followed the lead of Bacchus by placing celebrities in their parades. In 1974 Argus became the first Metairie parade on Fat Tuesday. This year also saw Endymion's rise to super krewe status. The Seventies brought a ban on parading in the French Quarter, ending a 117 year tradition. Mardi Gras made national headlines at the close of the decade with a police strike which cancelled 13 parades in Orleans Parish.

In the 80's Mardi Gras gained 27 new parades and lost 19. St. Bernard Parish suffered a net loss of parades while Jefferson and St. Tammany Parish experienced continued growth. By the end of the decade Jefferson Parish was experiencing an attendance rate of 600,000 people at its parades on Fat Tuesday.

The 1980's were were good times for Mardi Gras. In 1987 Rex brought back the custom of Lundi Gras, the arrival of the Rex King on the Mississippi River which had been celebrated from 1874 through 1917. The traditional tableau ball, however, lost popularity. Once considered essential, only 10 krewes continued the tradition of masked balls by the end of the decade. Doubloons also lost some of their popularity when several krewes stopped producing them.

http://www.eastjeffersonparish.com/culture/MARDIGRA/HISTORY/history.htm

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Mardi Gras in Mobile Alabama
A celebration preceding Lent, Mardi Gras culminates on Shrove (or "Fat") Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. For nearly 300 years, Mobilians have observed this pre-Lenten celebration.

The first carnival observance occurred at 27 Mile Bluff in the year 1703, continuing the cultural traditions settlers in Mobile (the "Port City") began back in their homeland of France. Celebrating Mardi Gras gave Mobilians the chance to enjoy a fine meal, some wine, and reminisce with families and friends.

Many years later, in 1830, Mobilian Michael Krafft, one one-eyed Pennsylvania Dutch transplant, celebrated the season with friends at a restaurant in downtown Mobile. Following the meal, these tipsy revelers "borrowed" some agricultural implements from a sidewalk display outside a downtown hardware store. Then, with cow bells, rakes, and hoes in hand, Krafft and his friends paraded through the streets of the town and thus was born the Cowbellion de Rakin Society, the first parading Mystic Society.

In 1866, after the Civil War, during the period when Mobile was still occupied by Union Forces, another group of gentlemen, led by Joseph Stillwell Cain, decided to revive the Krafft parade (which had been on hiatus during the war). They "borrowed" a coal wagon from a local business, and dressed in improvised costumes depicting a legendary Chickasaw Indian chief, Slacabamorinico, they paraded through the streets of town on Shrove Tuesday, thus giving rebirth to Mardi Gras, which has been observed in Mobile ever since.

Highlights of Mobile Mardi Gras history include the crowning of "royalty." In 1872, Daniel E. Huger first reigned as Carnival King Felix I, and a carnival association was established. Ethel Hodgson ruled as Mobile's first Mardi Gras queen in 1893. Later, in 1939, The Colored Carnival Association (later to be renamed the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association) selected a king and queen and elected the "Mayor of Colored Mobile," later retitled Grand Marshal. In 1968, Joe Cain Day was established as an all-inclusive street celebration that anyone was welcome to join.

While originating in Mobile, the Mardi Gras celebration quickly spread to other locations throughout the Gulf Coast. Mobile's Mardi Gras reputation as an major tourist attraction is reaching international proportions. More recent events in Mobile Mardi Gras tradition include, in 1993, the organization of the International Carnival Ball as a joint effort including both the Mobile Carnival Association and the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association. In that year also the only public Mardi-Gras style ball was begun to salute the Port City's carnival and international heritage.

The Museum of Mobile has documented the history of Mardi Gras in several of its galleries, including the Queen's Gallery which houses 18 magnificent outfits -- gowns, trains, jewels -- worn by queens of carnival over a period of 30 years. Also on display is the attire of a 1920's flapper queen, as well as costumes of several jesters of well-known parading societies. The Museum of Mobile's collections also include original Mardi Gras art and posters by various area artists, doubloons, tableaux designs, and ball invitations.

http://www.loc.gov/bicentennial/propage/AL/al_s_sessions3.html

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Galveston, TX Mardi Gras
The first recorded Galveston Mardi Gras was in 1867, and included a masked ball and a theatrical performance based on Shakespeare's "King Henry IV". The first grand scale celebration wasn't until 1871 with the emergence of two rival Mardi Gras societies, or "krewes": "The Knights of Momus" and the "Knights of Myth". Both krewes devised night parades, masked balls and striking costumes and elaborate invitations to their balls. The "Knights of Momus", led by some very prominent Galvestonians, decorated horse drawn carriages that were each torch lit for a spectacular night parade.

In the years that followed, the parades and balls grew more and more extravagant, and began to attract the attention of the entire south. The 1872 Galveston Island Mardi Gras was declared by one renowned news paper as "eclipsing anything ever attempted on Texas soil!" By 1880 many a famous person, theater stars and politicians were participating in the grand scale event. The street parades suffered after the War Between the States due to celebrations proving to be too expensive and elaborate to continue in the collapsed South. By 1900 when Galveston itself was devastated by the Great Storm, the parades never returned. However, the private sector continued their celebrations uninterrupted, with theme parties and masked costumed balls.

In 1910 the carnival parades were again revived and more "krewes" sprang forth. Public Mardi Gras activities grew annually, in both parades and celebrating crowds, and control was placed under the Galveston Booster Club's sponsorship until 1937, when the Chamber of Commerce started to oversee the events. The elaborate carnivals delighted Texas crowds until the outbreak of World War II, at which time the Mardi Gras celebrations were confined to a single day. Slowly public Mardi Gras ended and the season went back to be celebrated privately and balls evolved into debutante "coming out" events and fancy, exclusive parties.

Then in 1985 developer and Galveston native George P. Mitchell, along with his wife Cynthia, rekindled the public celebrations with a Grand Night Parade with nine fabulous, lighted floats designed by Blaine Kern, the famous New Orleans float designer. Pete Fountain came from New Orleans and led hundreds of musicians through the Strand area. That first public parade in several decades brought over 150,000 spectators and party goers to the island. Once again, Mardi Gras Galveston was alive!

Today's Mardi Gras on Galveston Island is bigger and better than ever. Now expanding over a two-weekend period with all public events coordinated by the Galveston Park Board in conjunction with the city of Galveston and more than seventeen participating "krewes". The majority of the celebration is with-in the entertainment district known as "The Strand". There are parades by day and night, with something for every age group. Many company, hotel and private masked balls provide an extra to evening entertainment in a fine tradition. And there are several art exhibits, sporting events, and literally every business on the island participates in some fashion. Many restaurants go along with the theme of the annual event, and staff is dressed in costume accordingly. The strand district houses numerous private residents atop the historic buildings and crowds strolling the district count on them for bead tossing exchanges. And akin to the famous New Orleans celebration, beads are highly prized at Galveston's Mardi Gras. Galveston Mardi Gras is a testimony to how much good fun people can have when so many individuals and organizations work together toward a mutual community success.

Galveston's Mardi Gras celebration is a month of festival balls and parties leading up to two weekends of full-blown party fever, featuring nine parades and continuous entertainment on several stages. Each night, the crowds grow all evening, until the street is a single mass. The rich aroma and smoke of roasting meats and treats rises from the street vendors, drinks flow freely. The Strand balconies are always crowded with bead-throwers. Like New Orleans the licentious celebration affiliated with Mardi Gras isn't lacking in Galveston. There are always beautiful and not so beautiful men and women who flaunt their bodies for plastic beads. As an aside I have not figured out what is it that motivates a woman to expose her breasts in a crowd or during a parade, the most public of settings for a string of plastic?

http://www.kreweofaquarius.com/info/galveston.htm