Down the mighty Ohio...

Long ago I was in Cincinnati, and I set to map out a new career. I had been reading about the recent exploration of the river Amazon by an expedition sent out by our government. It was said that the expedition, owing to difficulties, had not thoroughly explored a part of the country lying about its headwaters, some four thousand miles from the mouth of the river. It was only about fifteen hundred miles from Cincinnati to New Orleans, where I could doubtless get a ship. So, I packed my valise, and took passage on an ancient tub called the ‘Paul Jones,’ for New Orleans. For the sum of sixteen dollars I had the scarred and tarnished splendors of ‘her’ main saloon principally to myself, for she was not a creature to attract the eye of wiser travelers.

When we got under way and went poking down the broad Ohio, I became a new being, and the subject of my own admiration. I was a traveler! A word never had tasted so good in my mouth before. I had an exultant sense of being bound for mysterious lands and distant climes, which I never have felt in so uplifting a degree since. I was in such a glorified condition that all ignoble feelings departed out of me, and I was able to look down and pity the untraveled with a compassion that had hardly a trace of contempt in it. Still, when we stopped at villages and wood-yards, I could not help lolling carelessly upon the railings of the boiler deck to enjoy the envy of the country boys on the bank. I kept my hat off all the time, and stayed where the wind and the sun could strike me, because I wanted to get the bronzed and weather-beaten look of an old traveler. Before the second day was half gone I experienced a joy, which filled me with the purest gratitude; for I saw that the skin had begun to blister and peel off my face and neck. I wished that the boys and girls at home could see me now. (Slightly modified from Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi)

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.