Mardi Gras

Before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was famous for other things, and one of its most famous features was its annual Mardi Gras celebration. Though the basic aspects of the Mardi Gras celebration date back to Medieval Europe, most of the traditions of the modern celebration -- which occurs not just in New Orleans but in many other cities as well -- can be traced definitively back to the New Orleans areas as long ago as 1703 (Mardi Gras New Orleans 2009).

Though it is generally thought to be a celebration with roots in Christianity, a celebration similar to Mardi Gras known as Lupercalia was celebrated by the Romans, in which a circus-like festival played a major part (Davis 1997). When the Romans adopted Christianity, many customs and holidays were reappropriated, and it is at this time that celebrations of Carnival, as the holiday was known in France, became a way to let loose before the beginning of Lent (Hall of Festivities). For most people today, the religious aspects and origins of Mardi Gras are not nearly as important as the dancing, costumes, parade, drinking, and beads are as an end in and of themselves, but without the forty-day period of Lent the celebration of Mardi Gras would not have survived the centuries -- millennia, even.

the nineteenth century saw the Mardi Gras celebration banned, but when it were restored in New Orleans in the 1820s it was a great equalizing force, allowing African-Americans -- man of them still slaves -- the freedom to drum and celebrate in ways they were unable to almost anywhere else or at any other time (Carnaval 2000). The celebrations are still a great equalizer, brining together people of all classes and backgrounds in a racous celebration of life.

References

Davis, J. (1997). "Mardi Gras history." Accessed 8 September 2009. http://www.eastjeffersonparish.com/culture/MARDIGRA/HISTORY/history.htm

Carnaval. (2000). "Mardi Gras: Myth and history." Accessed 8 September 2009. http://www.carnaval.com/cityguides/neworleans/history.htm

Hall of Festivities. "Mardi Gras." Accessed 8 September 2009. http://www.novareinna.com/festive/mardi.html

Mardi Gras New Orleans. (2009). "Mardi Gras history." Accessed 8 September 2009. http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/history.html