The Mardi Gras Festival is a series of celebratory events that end on the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras literally means fat Tuesday and people come from all over the world to enjoy the festivities in new Orleans and indulge themselves in every way.
The holiday is celebrated in many countries all over the world, but many traditions remain constant. Currently, it is a recognized celebration in Brazil, Salvador, Canada, Columbia, Denmark, France, Germany, Guatemala, India, Italy, Panama, Sweden, Spain, and many Caribbean countries. The largest celebration is reported to be in Salvador, where two million people join in the city’s biggest street celebrations. The times that the festival is celebrated differ from country to country, but the celebration is the same.
It is important to note that it is not observed nationally, but many cities host individual celebrations. Mardi Gras for the United States is headquartered in the French quarter of new Orleans, Louisiana. Though new Orleans is not the only U.S. city to hold annual Mardi Gras celebrations, it is most certainly the most famous. Mardi Gras began in the Unites States in the late 17th century, when King Louis XIV sent the Le Moyne brothers over to protect a claim on the Louisiane territory, which is now known as Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. The expedition, led by Iberville, entered the Mississippi River, unknowing that the territory was already claimed by France, and made camp approximately 60 miles downriver from where new Orleans is today.
During the celebration, it is traditional for parade participants to throw trinkets and baubles into the seas of spectators who line the sides of the streets in order to create enthusiasm for the celebrations. The goodies or throws are usually made up of cheap, gaudy plastic toys, necklaces and coins stamped with krewes’ logos, parade themes and the year.
It is a tradition for spectators to shout to the krewe members, Throw me something, mister and the phrase is now as iconic as the festival itself. just as iconic as the shouting, is the tradition of plastic beaded necklaces to be given out by spectators as a reward to women who expose their breasts.
Mardi Gras was unexpectedly derailed by Hurricane Katrina, which decimated most of the Gulf Coast region of the United States in 2005. Celebrations across the nation were more somber than in previous years. But in 2006, new Orleans re-emerged and held its first post Katrina Mardi Gras celebration six months after the disaster.
They held to the traditions of the celebration as a way to demonstrate their resilience and as a reunion of sorts.
Today, Mardi Gras is as alive as ever in new Orleans. People flock to new Orleans much like they did before 2005, in a demonstration of solidarity and the unbreakable human spirit. Mardi Gras has taken on a new meaning to the people of Louisiana and all over the country.
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