Tuesday, February 24 2009

WHILE WE are at the height of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival today, scenes of revelry are taking place in many other parts of the world, including the United States.

In the United States, New Orleans to be exact, today is Fat Tuesday, the high point of that city’s world-renowned celebration. The US celebrations had its origins in Europe. Ancient Romans would observe what they called the Lupercalia, a circus-type festival which was, in many respects, quite similar to the present day Mardi Gras. This festival honoured the Roman deity, Lupercus, a pastoral God associated with Faunus or the Satyr.

When Christianity arrived in Rome, the dignitaries of the early Church decided it would be more prudent to incorporate certain aspects of such rituals into the new faith rather than attempt to abolish them altogether. This granted a Christian interpretation to the ancient custom and the Carnival became a time of abandon and merriment which preceded the Lenten period, a symbolic Christian penitence of 40 days commencing on Ash Wednesday and ending at Easter.

During this time, there would be feasting which lasted several days and participants would indulge in voluntary madness by donning masks, clothing themselves in the likeness of spectres and generally giving themselves up to Bacchus and Venus. All aspects of pleasure were considered to be allowable during the Carnival celebration.

From Rome, the celebration spread to other European countries. In medieval times, a similar-type festivity to that of the present day Mardi Gras was given by monarchs and lords prior to Lent in order to ceremoniously conscript new knights into service and hold feasts in their honour. The landed gentry would also ride through the countryside rewarding peasants with cakes (thought by some to be the origin of the King Cake), coins (perhaps the origin of present day gifts of Mardi Gras doubloons) and other trinkets.

It is generally accepted that Mardi Gras went to America in 1699 with the French explorer, Sieur d’Iberville. The festival had been celebrated as a major holiday in Paris since the Middle Ages. Iberville sailed into the Gulf of Mexico and, from there, launched an expedition along the Mississippi River. By March 3, 1699, Iberville had set up a camp on the West Bank of the River...about 60 miles south of the present day City of New Orleans in the State of Louisiana. Since that day was the very one on which Mardi Gras was being celebrated in France, Iberville named the site Point du Mardi Gras in honour of the festival.

From 1827 to 1833, the New Orleans’ Mardi Gras celebrations became more elaborate, culminating in an annual Mardi Gras Ball. Although the exact date of the first revelries cannot be determined, the Carnival was well-established by the middle of the 19th Century when the Mystick Krewe of Comus presented its 1857 Torchlight Parade with a theme taken from Paradise Lost written by John Milton.

In French, “Mardi Gras” literally means “Fat Tuesday,” so named because it falls on the day before Ash Wednesday, the last day prior to Lent. The origin of “Fat Tuesday” is believed to have come from the ancient Pagan custom of parading a fat ox through the town streets. Such Pagan holidays were filled with excessive eating, drinking and general bawdiness prior to a period of fasting.

In 1833, Bernard Xavier de Marigny de Mandeville, a wealthy plantation owner, solicited a large amount of money to help finance an organised Mardi Gras celebration. It was not until 1837, however, that the first Mardi Gras Parade was staged. Two years later, a description of the 1839 Parade noted that it consisted of a single float. Nonetheless, it was considered to be a great success and apparently, the crowd roared hilariously as this somewhat crude float moved through the streets of the city. Since that time, Mardi Gras in New Orleans has been an overwhelming success, continuing to grow with additional organisations participating each year.

The traditional colours of Mardi Gras are purple (symbolic of justice), green (symbolic of faith) and gold (symbolic of power).

Today, Louisiana’s Mardi Gras is celebrated not only in New Orleans, but also in numerous smaller cities and towns around the State and in the neighbouring Gulf Coast Region.

Regardless of where the festivals take place, however, all share a common party atmosphere inherently associated with the celebrations.