History of Carnival
The Republican Eagle
Published Sunday, February 22, 2009
History of Carnival
Mardi Gras came to America in 1699 with the French explorer, Sieur d’Iberville, according to the Web site
The festival had been celebrated as a major holiday in Paris since the Middle Ages. Iberville sailed into the Gulf of Mexico and launched an expedition up the Mississippi River. By March 3, 1699, Iberville had set up a camp on the west bank about 60 miles south of the present city of New Orleans.
Since that day was the very one on which Mardi Gras was being celebrated in France, Iberville named the site Point du Mardi Gras.
Other sources cite a group of students who had returned from school in Paris. In 1827, they donned strange costumes and danced their way through the streets of New Orleans. Still others attribute the celebration to early French settlers.
From 1827 to 1833, the New Orleans’ Mardi Gras celebrations became more elaborate, culminating in an annual Mardi Gras Ball. The carnival was well-established by the middle of the 19th century when the Mystick Krewe of Comus presented its 1857 Torchlight Parade with a theme taken from “Paradise Lost,” written by John Milton.
When is Mardi Gras?
In French, “Mardi Gras” literally means “Fat Tuesday,” so named because it falls the day before Ash Wednesday, the day prior to Lent — a 40-day season of prayer and fasting observed by the many Christian denominations that ends on Easter. Easter can fall from March 23 through April 25; it’s the Sunday that follows the first full moon after the spring equinox.
Mardi Gras is always 47 days prior to Easter Sunday (the 40 days of Lent plus seven Sundays). The beginning of the carnival season, however, is fixed as Jan. 6, which is the Feast of the Epiphany, otherwise known as Little Christmas or Twelfth Night.
Throwing trinkets in parades
The tradition of throwing trinkets to the crowds during Mardi Gras parades began in the early 1870s by the Twelfth Night Revelers.
In 1884, the Krewe of Rex threw the first medallions (silver dollar-sized commemorative coins later called doubloons) instead of the customary trinkets. Today’s doubloons are usually aluminum and anodized in a variety of colors, depicting the parade theme on one side and the emblem of the particular Krewe on the other. Many of these doubloons become collectors’ items.
Early medallions were much heavier than those minted today and were usually awarded only as ball favors. The custom of throwing trinkets from floats and from the balconies of the city is one of the older traditions in New Orleans and began one year when the parade featured Santa Klaus aboard a float, dispensing small trinkets to the watching children.
Other popular throws include long strings of pearlized beads and plastic cups bearing the emblems of the Krewes. The traditional cry of parade-goers who are pleading for throws is: “Throw me something, mister!”
Carnival Day itself (Tuesday, when the entire city of New Orleans takes the day off) is more of a family celebration with many of the local high school bands marching in the parades.