| Mardi Gras (Also known as Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday) |
|
|---|---|
 Costumed musicians, New Orleans |
|
| Type | Local, cultural, Catholic |
| Significance | Celebration prior to fasting season of Lent. |
| Celebrations | Parades, parties |
| Related to | Carnival |
The terms "Mardi Gras" (pronounced /ˈmɑrdi ɡrɑː/), "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season",[1][2][3][4][5][6] in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and ending on the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday" (in ethnic English tradition, Shrove Tuesday), referring to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season, which started on Ash Wednesday. Related popular practices were associated with celebrations before the fasting and religious obligations associated with the penitential season of Lent. Popular practices included wearing masks and costumes, overturning social conventions, dancing, sports competitions, parades, etc. Similar expressions to Mardi Gras appear in other European languages sharing the Christian tradition. In English, the day is called Shrove Tuesday, associated with the religious requirement for confession before Lent begins.
In many areas, the term "Mardi Gras" has come to mean the whole period of activity related to the celebratory events, beyond just the single day. In some US cities, it is now called "Mardi Gras Day" or "Fat Tuesday".[1][2][3][4][5][6] The festival season varies from city to city, as some traditions consider Mardi Gras the entire period between Epiphany or Twelfth Night and Ash Wednesday.[7] Others treat the final three-day period before Ash Wednesday as the Mardi Gras.[8] In Mobile, Alabama, Mardi Gras-associated social events begin in November, followed by mystic society balls on Thanksgiving,[7][9] then New Year's Eve, followed by parades and balls in January and February, celebrating up to midnight before Ash Wednesday. In earlier times parades were held on New Year's Day.[7] Other cities famous for Mardi Gras celebrations include Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Quebec City, Quebec in Canada; Mazatlan in Mexico; and New Orleans, Louisiana in the United States. Many other places have important Mardi Gras celebrations as well.
Carnival is an important celebration in Catholic European nations. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the week before Ash Wednesday is called "shrovetide", ending on Shrove Tuesday. It has its popular celebratory aspects as well. Pancakes are a traditional food. Pancakes and related fried breads or pastries made with sugar, fat and eggs are also traditionally consumed at this time in many parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Contents |
In the Belgian city of Binche the Mardi Gras festival is the most important day of the year and the summit of the Carnival of Binche. Around 1000 Gilles can be found dancing throughout the city from morning till well past dusk, whilst traditional carnival songs play. In 2003, the "Carnival of Binche" was proclaimed one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
The Carnival is an annual pre-Lenten celebration in Brazil. The cities of Recife and Salvador are well-known for their Carnival but the most notable is the one held in Rio de Janeiro. By Carnival's end on Mardi Gras, millions of people will have attended the festivities[10][11][12].
Recife's Carnival is nationally known and attracts thousands of people every year. The party starts a week before the official date, with electric trios "shaking" the Boa Viagem district. On Friday, people take to the streets to enjoy themselves to the sound of frevo and to dance with maracatu, ciranda, caboclinhos, afoxé, reggae and Mangue Bit groups. There is entertainment throughout the city, such as when more than a million people follow the Galo da Madrugada group. On Sunday the Pátio do Terço is the sight of Noite dos Tambores Silenciosos, where maracatus honor slaves that died in prison.
Rio de Janeiro has many Carnival choices, including the famous Escolas de Samba (Samba schools) parades in the sambódromo exhibition centre and the popular 'blocos de carnaval', which parade in almost every corner of the city. The most famous parades are the Cordão do Bola Preta with traditional carnival parades in the centre of the city, the Suvaco do Cristo parades in the Botanic Garden, Carmelitas parades in the hills of Santa Teresa, the Simpatia é Quase Amor is one of the most popular parades in Ipanema, and the Banda de Ipanema which attracts a wide range of revelers, including families and a wide spectrum of the gay population (notably spectacular drag queens).
According to the Guinness Book, the carnival or Carnaval of Salvador de Bahia is the biggest street party on the planet. For an entire week, almost two million people join the city's street celebrations, which are divided into circuits: Barra/Ondina, Campo Grande and Pelourinho. The music played during Carnaval includes Axé and Samba-reggae. Many "blocos" participate in Carnaval, the "blocos afros" like Malé Debalé, Olodum and Filhos de Gandhi being the most famous of them.
Mardi Gras celebrations are common throughout the country, especially in major cities like Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal.
French-speaking Quebec is the province where Mardi Gras is most widely celebrated in Canada. Quebec City and Montreal hold Mardi Gras celebrations, with events such as music festivals, comedy festivals, food festivals, and street parties.[13]
Quebec City is also famous for the Quebec Winter Carnival, which usually starts on the first Friday of January and continues for 17 days. With close to one million participants, it has grown to become the largest winter celebration in the world.[14] Festival events include a winter amusement park, with attractions such as skiing, snow rafting, and snow sled-slides.
In the Caribbean, Carnival is celebrated on a number of islands: Antigua, Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, Curaçao, Dominica,Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Martin, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and United States Virgin Islands are some of the celebrants.
Several Colombian cities celebrate carnivals in the period between Twelfth Night and Mardi Gras. The most important of these celebrations is Barranquilla's Carnival (Spanish: Carnaval de Barranquilla), which starts on the Saturday before Ash Wednesday and ends on Mardi Gras. The roots of Barranquilla's Carnival date back to the 19th century, and is reputed for being second in size to Rio's, but is far less commercialized. The Carnival of Barranquilla was proclaimed by UNESCO, in November 2003, as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
The celebration is known under names Karneval, Mesopust, Poklade or Fasnik, depending on the region. The most famous event is the Rijeka Carnival, one of the biggest carnivals in the world.
In Denmark a similar celebration is called Fastelavn. Fastelavn has evolved from the Roman Catholic tradition of celebrating in the days before Lent. After Denmark became a Protestant nation, the holiday became less specifically religious.
This holiday occurs seven weeks before Easter Sunday and is sometimes described as a Nordic Halloween, with children dressing up in costumes and gathering treats for the Fastelavn feast. The holiday is generally considered to be a time for children's fun and family games. The term "Fastelavn" is a Low Saxon loanword imported from Northern Germany: Fastelavend [ˈfastl̩.ˌɒːvm̩t], Fastelabend [ˈfastl̩.ˌɒːbm̩t], and Fastlaam (also spelled Fastlom) [ˈfastl̩ɒːm], related to Low Saxon Vastelaovend in the eastern parts of the Netherlands and to Dutch Vastenavond.
The city of Nice, France records that in the year of 1294, the Comte de Provence Charles II, Duc d’Anjou began taking his holidays in Nice to take part in the festivities of Carnival. These included balls, masquerades, bonfires, jugglers, mimes, and more. All that was required to take part was a costume and a mask. So much revelry was had that even the church could not control the more obscene aspects. The city's records, however, show that the celebration hit a high note in the period of time they call the Belle Époque, in the late 19th century to early 20th century before the World Wars.
The city of Nice celebrates Carnaval, with events over two weeks and celebrating Mardi Gras on the last day. The Nice Carnaval has parades of flower-covered floats and brilliant night-time light displays.[15]
Other French cities also hold Carnavals.
The celebration of Mardi Gras in Germany is called Karneval, Fastnacht, or Fasching.[16] Fastnacht means "Eve of the Beginning of the Fast", and is celebrated the day before Ash Wednesday.
The most famous parades are held in Cologne, Mainz, and Düsseldorf on the Monday before Ash Wednesday, called Rosenmontag.
The main celebration of Carnival in Guatemala is an eight-day celebration in Mazatenango.
In Goa, India, a former Portuguese Catholic colony until 1961, the Carnival is celebrated for three days culminating on Fat Tuesday.
In Kerala State, the carnival parade is called Rasa[citation needed] (fun in Sanskrit) and happens on the night before Ash Wednesday. There are typically no masks in the celebration, unlike in Goa.
Carnevale is the traditional pre-Lenten celebration in Italy. This is a time of merry-making, masquerade processions, masked balls, parades, pageants, jugglers, magicians, stilt walkers, elegant costumes and opulent masks, singing and dancing, fireworks, and outdoor feasts in the weeks prior to Ash Wednesday. Carnevale is a time of indulgence (and the last chance to eat meat) before Ash Wednesday, which signals the penance and fasting of Lent. Carnevale occurs all throughout Italy, where every city, town, and village celebrates its own traditional customs. Places such as Viareggio, Ivrea, Sciacca, Napoli, Roma, Calabria and Venezia have unique and elaborate celebrations that are world-famous.
The festivities of the last days of carnevale are the most intense as they culminate on Martedí Grasso (Mardi Gras or Shrove Tuesday). There are traditional foods and dolci (sweets) distinctively associated with carnevale, including fritelle, crespelle, sfingi, castagnole, cenci, nodi, chiacchere, bugie, galani, fritole, berlingaccio, sanguinaccio and tortelli, among others.
This children’s poem/song tells of how during Carnevale anything goes, referring to the games, jokes or tricks of the festa.
A Carnevale, ogni scherzo vale, evviva, evviva il Carnevale ! a Carnevale, ogni scherzo vale evviva, evviva il Carnevale! Cantiam, balliamo è Carnevale, ma.... Domani a scuola (purtroppo) si deve andare e studiare... A Carnevale, ogni scherzo vale evviva, evviva il Carnevale!
In Milan Mardi Gras is not the climax of Carnival, since the Carnival lasts four more days, ending on the Saturday after Ash Wednesday, because of the Ambrosian rite. The last day of Carnival, therefore, is the "Sabato grasso" (Shrove or Fat Saturday).
The most famous Carnivals in Italy are those held in Venice, Viareggio, Ivrea, Cento, Putignano, Bordighera and the "Sartiglia" in Oristano.
Venice is home to one of the most famous Carnival celebrations in the world, in addition to one of the oldest. The Carnival of Venice (or Carnevale di Venezia in Italian) was first recorded in 1268. The subversive nature of the festival is reflected in the many laws created over the centuries attempting to restrict celebrations and often banning the wearing of masks.
Masks have always been a central feature of the Venetian carnival; traditionally people were allowed to wear them between the festival of Santo Stefano (St. Stephen's Day, at the start of the Carnival season, and midnight of Shrove Tuesday). As masks were also allowed during Ascension and from October 5 to Christmas, people could spend a large proportion of the year in disguise and hide their behavior from being known.[17].
Maskmakers (mascherari) enjoyed a special position in society, with their own laws and their own guild. In 1797 Venice became part of the Austrian-held Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia when Napoleon signed the Treaty of Campo Formio. After the Austrians took control of the city on January 18, 1798, it fell into a decline that effectively brought Carnival celebrations to a halt for almost two centuries. Carnival was outlawed by Benito Mussolini's Fascist government in the 1930s and 1940s. The founding of a modern mask shop in the 1980s helped bring about the revival of Carnival in Venice.[18]
In the Netherlands you also have a festival that is similar to Mardi Gras. It's called Carnaval and is almost the same as the Venice Carnival. The meaning of the word Carnaval is 'Carne Vale' which means: Goodbye to the meat in Latin. It marks the beginning of the sacred period that leads to Easter.
The real festival is held in the southern provinces of the Netherlands, which are Limburg & Noord-Brabant. The rest of the country celebrates it too, but not like its origin.
Carnival is celebrated in several Panamanian cities, such as Las Tablas, Ocu, Chitre, Penenomé and Panama City. Carnival in this country is characterized by the soaking of people mainly via the use of water trucks and hoses. The celebrations tend to last through a four-day holiday weekend.
In Spain it is called Carnaval. The Carnival in Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the second most recognized carnival in Spain, after the Carnaval de Cádiz. They are generally celebrated in the month of February and tied to the Catholic holy days of Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday. In Tenerife during two weeks the Murgas take place and sing burlesque songs, the Queen of Carnival is elected within this time. In Cádiz, the carnival is characterized by groups of street musicians, Comparsas and Chirigotas who spent an entire year preparing their musical numbers to compete for the first price at the carnival in the Great Teatro Falla.
In Sweden the celebration is called Fettisdagen. It comes from the word "fett" (fat) and "tisdag" (Tuesday). Originally, this was the only day one should eat semlor (skinny Tuesday buns). These are now sold in most grocery stores and bakeries preceding the holiday, and up until Easter.
While not observed nationally throughout the United States, a number of traditionally ethnic French cities and regions in the country have notable celebrations. Mardi Gras arrived in North America as a French Catholic tradition with the Le Moyne brothers,[19] Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, in the late 17th century, when King Louis XIV sent the pair to defend France's claim on the territory of Louisiane, which included what are now the U.S. states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.[19]
The expedition, led by Iberville, entered the mouth of the Mississippi River on the evening of March 2, 1699, Lundi Gras. They did not yet know it was the river explored and claimed for France by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in 1683. The party proceeded upstream to a place on the west bank about 60 miles downriver from where New Orleans is today, and made camp. This was on March 3, 1699, Mardi Gras, so in honor of this holiday, Iberville named the spot Point du Mardi Gras (French: "Mardi Gras Point") and called the nearby tributary Bayou Mardi Gras. Bienville went on to found the settlement of Mobile, Alabama in 1702 as the first capital of French Louisiana.[20] In 1703 French settlers in Mobile began the Mardi Gras celebration tradition.[19][21][22] By 1720, Biloxi had been made capital of Louisiana. The French customs had already accompanied colonists who settled there.[19]
In 1723, the capital of Louisiana was moved to New Orleans, founded in 1718.[20] The tradition has expanded to the point that it became strongly associated with the city in popular perception, and embraced by residents of New Orleans beyond those of French or Catholic heritage. Mardi Gras celebrations are part of the basis of the slogan, Laissez les bon temps rouler, (Let the good times roll) and the nickname "Big Easy".[19] Mobile, Alabama, the former capital of New France, also has a long tradition of celebrating Mardi Gras. Other cities along the Gulf Coast formerly occupied and owned by the French from Pensacola, Florida, and its suburbs to Lafayette, Louisiana, have active Mardi Gras celebrations. In the rual Acadiana area, many Cajuns celebrate with the Courir de Mardi Gras, a tradition that dates to medieval celebrations in France.[23] In more recent times several other U.S. cities without a French heritage have instituted a kind of Mardi Gras celebration; for instance, the UETA Jamboozie festival is held late January in Laredo, Texas.
|
|
Wikis
Search
