In , Chinese New Year will begin on February 1. Tied to the Chinese lunar calendar, the holiday was traditionally a time to honor household and heavenly deities as well as ancestors. It was also a time to bring family Mardi Gras and Carnival are the same celebration. Presidents' Day is a federal holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February; Presidents' Day will occur on Monday, February Originally established in in recognition of President George Washington, the holiday became popularly known as Presidents' Day after it Earth Day was founded in as a day of education about environmental issues, and Earth Day will occur on Friday, April Live TV.
This Day In History. History Vault. When is Mardi Gras? What Is Mardi Gras? What Does Mardi Gras Mean? Recommended for you. Indeed, many Louisianans themselves have very incomplete knowledge of the intricacies of this great festival event or, really, series of events —of how different people celebrate it differently, of how the madness is organized, of how it plays so many roles on the stage of Louisiana society.
To begin with, Mardi Gras has—broadly speaking—three rather different manifestations. There is the great, world-famous city Carnival of New Orleans. There is the courir du Mardi Gras of rural French Louisiana, sometimes referred to as the Cajun Mardi Gras though it is celebrated also in Creole communities Creole here meaning people of mixed French and African descent and cultural heritage.
And there are numerous Mardi Gras celebrations in other cities and in small towns which pattern themselves on the model of New Orleans celebration but which are also shaped by local forces and which may incorporate elements of the small-town civic festival. What they have in common, of course, is there being forms of pre-Lenten carnival, celebrations which emphasize feasting and excess hence "Mardi Gras," French for "Fat Tuesday" just before the fasting of the solemn Christian season of Lent.
Thus they are part of a larger festival system—known to Iberville in the 17th century—found in many parts of the world where Catholic especially Latin Catholic cultures emphasize, or at least allow for, the celebrating of the flesh prior to honoring the spiritual during Lent. Mardi Gras has had little place in Protestant North Louisiana, though in recent years the festival has expanded its traditional boundaries.
To many, both outside and inside Louisiana, New Orleans Mardi Gras is the Mardi Gras, perhaps the only one of which they have much knowledge. Indeed, not only is it a socially important event for local residents, but for many years it has been promoted to outsiders, and it is very important to the Crescent City economy, both in terms of tourist dollars and local spending, as well as to the city's sense of itself.
Celebration in the early days of this season which purists insist should be referred to as "Carnival," reserving the term "Mardi Gras" specifically for Fat Tuesday itself are mostly limited to private ones such as parties and balls.
As the season advances, the events become more public and emphasis shifts especially to parades. The number of parades increases at Mardi Gras day gets closer and the day itself is full of parading and "masking," that is, the wearing of costumes. Mardi Gras is the only day when large numbers of people costume in the streets, and, indeed, the streets fill up with elaborately dressed people, especially in the French Quarter. New Orleans Mardi Gras parades—there are many on Mardi Gras day and on the days just preceding it—are very lavish, featuring opulent floats designed to tie in with parade themes.
They are built to accommodate numerous masked riders, who are the members of the private organizations generally called "krewes" which each sponsor a parade. In addition, marching bands intersperse with the floats to provide music. Some krewe officials may ride horses or in cars.
Night parades feature impressively lit floats and may include flambeaux carriers, torch bearers who walk. Each krewe has a king and queen who ride their own floats or vehicles. And as the parade "rolls," the riders toss to the watching crowds what are called "throws"—strings of beads, specially-made cups, specially-minted aluminum coins called "doubloons," and other trinkets.
These throws are avidly sought by the crowd and process of throwing gives these parades a particular interactive quality, the parade attendees becoming participants rather than mere spectators. Although parades in general were popular in New Orleans from early days, the present-day pattern of parading and its organization stems only from the s.
The day has similarities to the raucous Roman festivals of Saturnalia and Lupercalia. Once Christianity came to Rome, religious leaders tried to blend pagan traditions with Christian traditions for a smoother transition. What resulted was a festival where people drank, feasted, danced, and partied before the abstinent and somber period of Lent began.
However, some experts disagree and say that this festivity actually began as a response to the Catholic Church banning sex and meat during Lent. They say this then lead to people partying and indulging as much as they could before Lent started.
In this narrative, experts believe that Church leaders encouraged the rumors of pagan roots in an effort to quell the festivities. Some don't realize that while Mardi Gras is always the Tuesday before Lent, the actual season begins in January.
In England, it became known as Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day, which is still popular today you can imagine what they eat. European colonists later brought the huge celebrations to the Americas , where it became Carnival Tuesday in Caribbean nations. He settled down near present-day New Orleans and brought the tradition with him. Where the first official celebration actually happened, however, is up for constant debate. Some say that Alabama holds the title on a technicality—the city was officially founded over a decade before the Big Easy.
In , New Orleans hosted its first Mardi Gras parade. The word originated in France and was what people used to describe the day before Ash Wednesday, when they would binge on rich foods such as meat, eggs, milk, and cheese before Lent began.
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