Mardi Gras and the Carnival

Mardi Gras which means Fat Tuesday refers to climax of Carnival celebrations taking place the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. During the Carnival season popular practices include wearing costumes and masks, dancing in town squares, parades of floats and merry making such as eating and drinking in excess.  It is from those practices that Fat Tuesday takes its name.

Italy is the birthplace of the Carnival, having its origins in one of the following Greco/ Roman festivals.  The Saturnalia were festivities to honor Saturn, the deity who reigned during the Golden Age, when humans enjoyed bounty without labor.  The Bacchanalia were the festivals for Bacchus the Greco-Roman god of wine and ecstasy and arrived in Rome from the Greek colonies in southern Italy.  The word Carnival or Carnaval is from “carne vale” which means “goodbye to the meat” in Latin.  Interestingly, the Greek word for Carnival is Αποκριες, which also means “without meat”. 

Carnivals are common in cities with large Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox populations such as Niece.  Cities with large Protestants populations have different festivities such as the Feast Day of St Martin in November.  It follows the time when the autumn seeding was completed and the annual slaughter of the fattened cow produced the “Martinmas beef”. 

In the US Mardi Gras is celebrated in Louisiana and New Orleans thanks to Cajun traditions their distinct dialect and music that accompanied them and other French colonists that settled there.

The exuberance of the celebrations of Mardi Gras in New Orleans have been described with the slogan, Lessez le bons temps rouler (let the good times roll).

The most famous of all Carnivals is that at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil with Samba schools parading in the Sambadrome.  The festival attracts millions of Brazilians and tourists alike who participate in endless street parties and watch parades whose exuberance make the Rio Carnival the biggest show on Earth.

The coronation of the Queen concludes the festivities of the Rio Carnival.