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The festival of Mardi GrasHoliday celebrations unite families and community in remembrance of historical events and as a way of ushering in seasons. Mardi Gras also known as the carnival or ‘fat Tuesday’ is one such celebration originally based in Rome (History.com). In this speech, you will learn of the history, origin and statistics of the celebration as well as some cultures that celebrate it.
Chronologically, the Mardi gras festival existed when paganism reigned, thousands of years ago. Amid introduction of Christianity in Rome, the celebration was assimilated into the Christianity (History.com). The celebration preside the Roman’s 40 day lent period characterised by fasting whose start is marked by Ash Wednesday and end by Easter Sunday. The festival was introduced to America by two French brothers’ d’Iberville and Bienville (History.com). The first celebration was on March 3rd 1699 along the Mississippi river in honour of their native Mardi Gras (History.com).
In 1711, the first informal mystic society was founded to celebrate occasion preceded by another one by students in 1827 and the first formal one in 1856 commonly referred to as the Mistick Krewe of Comus (History.com). With time, the celebrations gained popularity outside New Orleans and beyond Catholics and Anglicans though a legal celebration only in Louisiana .Today, the celebration is characterised by street parades, decorating floats, dances, donning masks, throwing beaded necklaces and other trinkets and eating King Cake (History.com). Mardi Gras theme colours are purple green and gold.
Worldwide, Mardi Gras is prominent in Brazil, Sweden, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Paris and New Orleans (History.com). In Brazil the Period is responsible for seventy percent of the county’s tourists (Rhodes). According to a 2009 study, 7 out of 10 Americans support Mardi Gras and in the same year, 1.2 million people participated in the festival in new Orleans (Rhodes). In addition, about 7000,000 people participated in the post –Katrina Mardi Gras (Rhodes).
In conclusion, Mardi Gras is popular globally. The festival features parades, costumes, dancing and throwing of beads (History.com). Mardi Gras’s historical religious foundation is still stunt though the event has been adopted by non Catholics. The period of the event is different in each region but one fact remains; it is celebrated prior to the commencement of the catholic lent season. Moreover, the festival is relevant to people globally the reason why New Orleans city spends 3.33 million dollars on Mardi Gras (Rhodes).
Work cited
Rhodes, M. Cool Mardi Gras stats mash up. Accessed on January 7th 2013 from http://blog.carnivalneworleans.com/?p=3151 (2011)
History.com. Mardi Gras. Accessed on January 7th 2013 from http://www.history.com/topics/mardi-gras(n.d)
