Mardi Gras translates from French to “Fat Tuesday” and refers to the all-out celebrations that take place in many places across the globe each year on the day before Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of Lent. Cities known for their elaborate and colourful Mardi Gras festivities include Rio de Janeiro, Venice, Cologne, and especially New Orleans in the United States. But why exactly do indulgent festivities like parades, costumes, feasts and partying occur ahead of more austere Lent traditions? What is the significance of the traditions and practices underlying Mardi Gras celebrations that cause them to remain so culturally enduring year after year?
Mardi Gras and its Relationship to the Christian Calendar
To appreciate what fuels such highly-anticipated indulgent revelries leading up to Lent requires first understanding a bit of background on key religious dates. Here is the basic calendar:
Ash Wednesday – Starts the 40 days of Lent for many Catholics and Christians when ashes placed on foreheads remind them of human mortality and the need for repentance
Lent – Period commemorating the 40 days Jesus fasted in the desert resisting temptation and preparing spiritually for his death/resurrection
Palm Sunday – Celebrates Jesus’s triumphant return to Jerusalem the week before his crucifixion – people laid palm leaves and cloaks hailing his arrival
Holy Week – Final week of Lent when Holy Thursday and Good Friday specifically mark The Last Supper and Jesus’s arrest/crucifixion
Easter Sunday – The culmination of Lent on the Sunday three days after Good Friday – celebrates Jesus’s resurrecting from death
Mardi Gras – Fat Tuesday, the final day for eating richer foods before Lent fasting begins on Ash Wednesday
So Mardi Gras serves as the last celebration, procession and community feast preparing for the impending 40-day fast mimicking Jesus’s intense period of sacrifice and withdrawal into the desert.
Diverse Cultural Influences Shaped Mardi Gras
Various cultural intersections and traditions all contributed threads interweaving into the elaborate modern fabric of Mardi Gras festivities celebrated globally today:
Pre-Christian Traditions
- Ancient Roman festivals leading up to spring tied to themes of renewal – feasting, masquerade balls and parades with floats were common
- Roman Catholic traditions absorbed some practices into medieval European Carnival festivals
Medieval Carnival Festivities
- In Catholic countries, extreme indulgences preceded Lent – bonfires, pranks, elaborate feasts of meats, cheeses, bread and wine
- Costumes and masks allowed the loosening of normal societal roles and structure
French Influence
- When France ruled New Orleans in the late 1700s, celebrations incorporated opulent balls, lavish dinners, and processions modelling French Carnival style
Why New Orleans Became The Modern American Capital of Mardi Gras
By the mid-1800s, waves of French, Spanish and Italian immigrants dominated New Orleans’ population – all groups historically steeped in lengthy Carnival traditions. The city’s broad walkable streets and mild winter climate also made New Orleans uniquely physically suited for hosting elaborate outdoor pageantry processions and balls leading up to Lent:
Blended Cultural Traditions
- European ethnic groups infused traditional practices into New Orleans Mardi
- Elaborate floats, masking, parade royalty court systems, gifting trinkets to event attendees
Formalized Structure and Planning
- Social clubs and krewes formed – responsible for throwing formal masquerade balls, and organizing parade floats on a grand scale never seen before
- Built lengthy parade routes throughout New Orleans neighborhoods
Appealing Timing
- Pre-Lent timing meant work and ordinary responsibilities paused
- Fostered freedom celebrating before 6 weeks of self-discipline began
Financial Opportunities
- Merchants loved profit-making potential temporally aligned before Lent austerity
- Hotels, restaurants, and entertainment venues benefited from hosting visitors to the events
Key Characteristics and Traditions of Modern Mardi Gras
Today when outsiders envision Mardi Gras, they likely think specifically of boisterous New Orleans celebrations in February flooding the streets with colorful spectacles. Common traditional elements include:
Elaborately Decorated Floats
- Krewes spent all year designing creative floats adorned with lights/moving parts
- Funds raised via exclusive ball attendees help offset costs
Throws
- Plastic bead necklaces, cups, toys, trinkets tossed from floats to masses of parade attendees
- Fine embroidery and sewing skills craft decorative handmade throws as krewe gifts
Masked Balls
- Masquerade balls managed by traditional old-line krewes and newer krewes dominating the social calendar all season
- tickets can cost hundreds of dollars reserving dinner seats viewing parade stages and tableaus
Flamboyant Costumes
- Costuming integral to the celebration with stamped attire signifying one’s Krewe affiliation
- Colourful capes, headdresses, and ornamental accessories like fans’ popular
King Cakes
- Oval cakes decorated with green, gold, and purple with hidden baby figurines inside
- Tradition says finder hosts next Mardi Gras party
Why Mardi Gras Has Endured Centuries and Remains Relevant
What explains the incredible staying power and global enthusiasm still surrounding this historical annual indulgent celebration leading up to Lent even in highly commercialized modern incarnations?
Cathartic Release Before Restraint
After nearly two months of escalating anticipation following drab post-New Year’s January, Mardi Gras offers a psychological release valve briefly suspending mundane responsibilities through costumed revelry, dancing, drinking, parades, and unity encircling the communal last feast before fasting.
Ritualizing Order and Chaos Cycles
Scholars note rituals like Carnival and Mardi Gras historically helped reinforce the contrast between discipline and disorder as necessary cycles renewing society. The ecclesiastical calendar purposefully demands sober self-control coming out of Lent only after first allowing spells of scheduled madness as preparation. Mardi Gras lets participants ritualize this pendulum swing between chaos and order annually.
Mirroring Christmas Commercialism
Like its analogue Christmas capturing public fascination as a holiday turned capitalist spectacle, Mardi Gras as event generating tremendous revenue through tourism influxes now necessitates city and corporate sponsorships. This commercialism ensures institutional perpetuity regardless of religious disaffiliation growing nationally. First ensured by old-line social clubs and now spreading across queer communities and American coastal cities far from Catholic strongholds, chasing empty hedonism alone motivates travel and participation absent piety.
Flourishing LGBTQ+ Pride
Where race, power and pedigree historically dominated Mardi Gras society access via old-line social clubs and formal ballroom, contemporary incarnations reveal democratizing shifts through LGBTQ+ krewes and safer Pride adjacent celebrations integrating alongside. Like Carnival internationally, Mardi Gras increasingly intermixes displays of gender identity, sexuality, and progressive revelry welcoming to the post-religious.
Key reasons Mardi Gras celebrations remain culturally popular
| Category | Explanation | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Timing | Final indulgence before Lent fasting | Psychological release before period of sober restraint |
| Symbolism | Ritualizes cycle of societal order and chaos | Necessary renewing pendulum swing incorporated into calendar |
| Commercialism | Generates tourism revenue like Christmas | Ensures institutional backing regardless of secularism |
| Accessibility | More democratized participation across identities | Alternative sexual/gender expression visibility promotes inclusion |
Conclusion
What began as a last-chance feast for medieval Catholic European peasants before somber Lent has exploded into varied lengthy modern Carnival incarnations like Brazil’s Rio, and especially vibrant weeks-long costumed parties flooding New Orleans with debaucherous spectacle. While evolution introduced kitsch commercialization diluting spiritual tradition, it also expanded audience diversity through incorporating marginalized identity expression. An event that entwines community through ritualized excess and imaginative role reversals so cathartically will undoubtedly continue unleashing irresistible abandon annually in cities desiring renewal through joyful, equitable ordered chaos.
