History of Mardi Gras
Have you ever wondered how Mardi Gras got started, or what the significance of the King Cake is? There is a lot to know about this crazy celebration known as Mardi Gras.
Mardi Gras means “Fat Tuesday” in French and is celebrated 46 days before Easter. It is also called Shrove Tuesday. This holiday originates from ancient Rome. It started with young men wearing a disguise while parading down the streets and holding feasts for everyone. What they did were considered “pagan” which means a person has a different belief than what the main belief is. Instead of getting rid of these “pagan feasts”, one of the earliest Christian Church’s made these events into a holiday.
Centuries later in 1699, a French explorer named Pierre le Moyne set up a camp near present day New Orleans and named the site “Pointe de Mardi Gras.” This was also when the first Mardi Gras was held in Louisiana. When the Spanish took over, they got rid of the celebration but when Louisiana became a state, they brought it back. In present day America, Louisiana is the only state that can legally celebrate Mardi Gras. After that, the Europeans brought over their celebrating customs and soon, the streets were filled with masked people and private balls were being held to socialize and dance. Next came the “Rex, King of the Carnival” parade.
In 1872, the Grand Duke of Russia, Alexis Romanov, visited the town of New Orleans. A group of business men saw this as an opportunity to get more people to visit the town so what they did was create a parade known as “Rex, King of the Carnival” and had Alexis be Rex. This was also how the throwing of the beads got started. Alexis wanted the colors of the parade to be purple, gold, and green; these colors represented justice, power, and fidelity and were meant to be thrown to the person who were great examples of the qualities. Rex has become a custom into the present day Mardi Gras. Every year, a new Rex is chosen and they are given the Keys to the City by the mayor.
During the festivities in medieval Europe, the people came up with the idea of which ever man found a coin or a bean in his piece of cake called King Cake, which was named after the Three Kings and the King of Twelfth Night, would become king/monarch of the Twelfth Night for the night. Whoever became king had the option of choosing his own queen or by having a group of women eat a piece of cake and whichever woman found a pea in her piece of cake would become consort. Later on after the French came to New Orleans, they had replaced the coin/bean with a plastic baby Jesus. That is still how these round custard-filled cakes known as King Cake are made today. They are decorated with crowns, jewel-like sugars, plastic coins, the baby Jesus, and beaded necklaces the colors of purple, gold, and green.
This year Mardi Gras is celebrated on February 28th.
