Most of us are familiar with the Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans with parades, floats, beads, and drunken revelers in the streets. Mardi Gras is kind of a last fling before the observance of Lent which starts on Ash Wednesday and ends 40 days later on Easter. The history of the Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) celebration dates back long before Europeans brought it to America. In fact, during the middle of February the Romans celebrated Lupercalia which is a festival similar the Mardi Gras we know. After Rome embraced Christianity the church decided to incorporate some of the pagan customs so the new adherents would not see all their rituals abolished. The season of Carnival became the wild abandon before the penance of Lent so it was given a Christian interpretation of the custom. The word carnival comes from Latin for “Meat Leaving” and the season of lent is marked by a fasting from meat. Lent is not mentioned in the Bible but it has been a tradition in the Christianity since the 4^th century and it parallels the fasting Jesus went through in the wilderness after his baptism.

Mardi Gras came to America in 1699 when French adventurer Pierre Le Moyne Iberville explored the Mississippi River after sailing in the Gulf of Mexico. Mardi Gras had been a part of Paris culture since the Middle Ages and he set up camp about 60 miles from New Orleans on the day it was being celebrated in France. Iberville named the location Point du Mardi Gras as his way of honoring the day. The celebrations were common into the late 1700s in New Orleans until it came under Spanish rule when it was banned. America took control in 1803 but the celebrations were still banned until the Creole people convinced the governor to allow masked parties in 1823. Street parties were allowed starting in 1827.

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Mardi Gras came under fire again when violence in the mid-19th century was attributed to the revelers and a call to end the celebration rang out from the press. A group of New Orleans residents saved it by forming the Comus organization in 1857 and showed that Mardi Gras could be a beautiful and fun event. Various groups known as Krewes joined the parade over the next 130 years. The Mardi Gras celebration was interrupted by the Civil War and WWII but has only gotten bigger and is the party we know today.

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