Mardi Gras

Do you know what you are celebrating or do you just go for those darn beads and other throws?

The terms "Mardi Gras" and "Mardi Gras season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, ending on the day before Ash Wednesday. From the French term "Mardi Gras" (literally "Fat Tuesday"), the term has come to mean the whole period of activity related to those events, beyond just the single day, often called Mardi Gras Day or Fat Tuesday. The season can be designated by the year, as in "Mardi Gras 2008".

The time period varies from city to city, as some traditions consider Mardi Gras as the Carnival period between Epiphany or Twelfth Night and Ash Wednesday. Others treat the final three-day period as being Mardi Gras. In Mobile, Alabama, Mardi Gras events begin in November, followed by mystic society balls on Thanksgiving,[7][9] then New Year's Eve, formerly with parades on New Year's Day, followed by parades and balls in January & February, celebrating up to midnight before Ash Wednesday.

Other cities most famous for their Mardi Gras celebrations include Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Many other places have important Mardi Gras celebrations as well.

Carnival is an important celebration in most of Europe, except in Ireland and the United Kingdom where the festival is called "shrovetide" ending on Shrove Tuesday, and pancakes are the tradition, and also in many parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Moon Pies and Mardi Gras starts in Mobile

In the total history of the Carnival, never has the Mobile side failed to come up with a surprise or two when it comes to one of a kind† throws.† Now everyone knows about New Orleans and it's new and improved version of the Zulu Coconuts, called Mardi Gras Coconuts.

† Of course everyone knows well that Mobile throws it's unique item the moonpie, which the krewes purchase by the ton.† The story of how the moon pie got its start is also well known, but if you're not familiar with the story, please head on over to to Moonpie.com and click history.

The story here revelers is the history of how a moon pie came to be used as a throw in the Mobile parades.

A lot of people that aren't that familiar with the Mobile style should know that before 1974, food has always been involved as a throw ever since 1949, when Crackerjacks, (peanuts and caramel nuggets) were throw by a lot of krewes as a treat for the revelers. Crackerjacks, were brought about because of the cheap alternative it presented to beads.†

However, people kept getting beamed with the end of those rectangular boxes that the treats came in, and those box ends were hard and sharp. Sensing something needed to be done the mobile city official banned the candied popcorn as a throw about 1972.

A lot treats and articles preceded the mobile icon into the parades as the krewes searched for a replacement, to the popular popcorn in a treat.

The first to throw moon pies were the krewe of "Maids of Mirth" in 1974 as an alternative to the recently banned boxes of cracker jacks. Soon other krewes were following the action as the throw caught on.

†Moon Pie is a trade marked name of the Chattanooga bakery in Tennessee. These are still wrapped in it's colorful package. That bakery still put out the original moonpies which are still ordered by some. There are, however, other companies, out there, that sell other styles and brands of moonpies† to the krewes by literally the ton.

Mardi Gras pies are smaller than the original pies and come in a silver wrapper, often with an organization's emblem on the wrapper. Mardi Gras pies come now in strawberry, and apple. In 1999, we saw the return of the orange flavored mardi gras pies!

Mardi Gras and those dang beads

Louisiana's Mardi Gras is marked by several lavish parades thrown by Carnival organizations known as krewes. But instead of politely watching the floats go by, spectators belt out the time-honored plea of "throw me something, mister" as they jostle for one of the trinkets tossed by masked men and women on the passing floats.

Contrary to popular belief, however, there is no need for a special strategy-such as exposing one's usually clothed body parts-to get the attention of the masked riders.

"There is so much thrown that there is no way you are not going to go home with a bag full of goodies," said Arthur Hardy, a New Orleans television personality and publisher of Arthur Hardy's Mardi Gras Guide.

The goodies, or "throws," consist of necklaces of plastic beads, coins called doubloons and stamped with krewes' logos and parade themes, and an array of plastic cups, toys, Frisbees, and figurines.

"Beads always have been and continue to be the most popular items," said Fred Berger, owner of Mardi Gras Imports in Slidell, Louisiana.

Berger is one of the several merchants competing in what has become the multimillion-dollar industry of Mardi Gras throws. On average, individual krewe members spend U.S. $800 on the trinkets. "Some people won't bat an eye at spending $2,000 or $2,500," Berger said.

According to Hardy, who is considered New Orleans's unofficial Mardi Gras expert, the tradition of throws dates back to the 1920s. The parades themselves date all the way back to the 1830s.

The parades run throughout Carnival season, which begins on January 6, the Twelfth Night of Christmas, and culminate on Mardi Gras. Each parade is put on by a krewe, and according to Hardy, the Rex krewe began the tradition of throws by tossing out inexpensive necklaces of glass beads.

The beads were an instant hit and were soon adopted by all the parading krewes, of which there are about 60 today. Hardy also credits Rex for first adopting and throwing out doubloons. The plastic coins were the 1960 invention of the late artist H. Alvin Sharpe.

As throws gained popularity, krewes got more creative in what they decided to toss. Logo-emblazoned plastic cups, Frisbees, and other toys are now a part of the mix-each an attempt to make one krewe's parade stand out from the others.

The glass beads of the early throws were imported from Czechoslovakia and Japan. Today the plastic throws are manufactured mostly in China. Krewes, working through a merchant such as Berger, must get their orders and special design requests submitted by September in order to receive their shipment in time for Carnival.

One of the few throws not made in China is coconuts hand-painted by members of the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, a prominent krewe of New Orleans's black community. The coconuts are considered the most prized throws by many Mardi Gras aficionados. But owing to liability issues, they are handed out in bags rather than tossed.

French Quarter

Starting in the late 1970s, drunken Mardi Gras revelers converging in New Orleans's historic and notoriously raucous French Quarter district began the much publicized bartering of beads for glimpses of a women's bare breasts.

According to Hardy, the practice started several years after parades were banned, for safety reasons, from the quarter's narrow streets. This new tradition, he says, has nothing to do with Mardi Gras.

"If you want to see these types of behaviors, you have to seek them out in the French Quarter, where there are no parades," Hardy said. "It's always young co-eds who get drunk. They would never do this back home, but they feel they have the license to do it here."

Nevertheless, Berger says he does brisk business in fancy necklaces that have bartering power linked to "the trend of women exposing body parts to get a pair of beads." After all, it's the end of Carnival, which loosely translated from Latin, means "farewell to flesh."

The King Cake

Writer Robert Tallent once described Carnival as "a mock revival of monarchic rule," and every year in New Orleans, the thrills and glories of this make-believe world begin anew on January 6, also known as Twelfth Night, with the Twelfth Night Revelers bal masque.

To the casual observer it might seem a strangely formalized, if not downright quaint, spectacle. But at its heart is a ritual that is key to understanding how a sticky, coffee cake-type pastry-king cake-evolved into one of the most recognizable, and hungered for, symbols of New Orleans and Mardi Gras.

The gist of the Twelfth Night Revelers' (TNR) proceedings, though subject to variations from year to year, unfold more or less as follows: Not long after a curtain is raised to reveal his majesty, the Lord of Misrule, krewe members attired as pastry chefs wheel out an enormous mock cake aglow with "candles" (actually electric lights) and pantomime cutting it with large faux baker's knives made of wood. Depending on how lively they're feeling, they might even stage a sword fight.

The song "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" is the cue for the "Cake March" and first dance, which are reserved for single women seated in the call-out section on the main floor. One by one, as their names are announced, or "called out," they're escorted by a committeeman to the masked krewe members who requested the favor of the dance. The masker in turn leads his "call out"† to the cake, which is chock-a-block with small boxes. Each box contains either a small piece of real cake or a bean on a chain. As orchestrated by krewemen, who are assisted by pre-teen boys got up as "junior cooks," only the debutantes designated to serve as maids in the court receive boxes with beans. All but one of the debs is handed a box with silver bean.† Whoever receives the box with the gold bean, is crowned queen. †

This being the realm of make-believe, the fact that her royal fate is actually predetermined is beside the point: The ritual is designed to perpetuate the illusion that the Goddess of Chance has exerted her will through the "luck of the bean." That everyone knows it's a rigged game, however, doesn't mean that the recipient of the prized trinket won't be utterly surprised. Indeed, much depends on how well her parents, who traditionally host a pre-planned party after the ball, keep the secret.

One of New Orleans Carnival's most socially elite organizations, TNR held its first pageant on January 6, 1870-a parade and tableau ball entitled "Twelfth Night Revel." (Botched orchestration in serving cake that year resulted in a famous footnotes to Mardi Gras history. More on this later.)

In drawing inspiration from the historical customs associated with making merry on Twelfth Night, the Revelers owed a debt to early Church fathers and, more specifically, St. Augustine. As Bridget Ann Henisch explains in her exquisitely rendered book Cakes and Characters: An English Christmas Tradition, it was during the reign of Roman emperor Aurelian, in the late 3rd century, that December 25, the winter solstice of the Julian calendar, was declared to be the official birthday of the divinity sol invictus, the Invincible Sun.†"Soon afterwards the Church made a poaching raid into enemy territory," writes Henisch,†and "seized the day for its own."

In the story of the Epiphany, as related in the gospel of Matthew, "three wise men from the east" visited the baby Jesus in Bethlehem on the twelfth day following his birth. "An epiphany is a manifestation," notes Henisch, "and January 6 became the day appointed by the Church to celebrate the revelation of Christ's divinity to mankind."

In the 4th century,† the western world's most influential preacher, St. Augustine, romanticized and embellished the story of the Epiphany. The gift-bearing wise men became "kings," and Feast of the Epiphany, the twelfth day of Christmas, evolved into a major holiday imbued with royal associations.

Medieval monarchs would don their finest regalia, maybe even wager in a game of dice. Presents were given to children to commemorates the gifts given by the kings to the baby Jesus. In the great houses of Europe, the holiday became a glittering finale to a 12-day Christmas cycle, with elaborate entertaimnents featuring conjurers, acrobats, jugglers, harlequins and other humorous characters-notable among them the Lord of Misrule, whose task was to organize the festivities. In England-where the seasonal extravaganzas might include elaborate allegorical dramas, called masques, that paid homage to the monarch as a guardian of the state and a provider of peace and prosperity-he often was appointed on November 1, All Saints' Day, to allow him time to prepare. His reign lasted throughout the 12 days of Christmas and, according to Henisch, sometimes even extended to the traditional feast day that serves as the overture to Lent: Shrove Tuesday.

While the Twelfth Night customs that spread throughout Europe were subject to numerous variations, one element transcended virtually every culture that observed the holiday: the choice of a mock king for the occasion. "The way he was chosen might vary," Henisch explains, "but it was always a matter of chance and good fortune: lots could be drawn or, in the most widespread convention, a cake would be divided. The person who found a bean, or a coin, in his piece was the lucky king for the night. Sometimes he picked his own queen, sometimes chance chose her for him, and a pea secreted in the cake conferred the honor on its finder. The temporary change in status was sustained with ceremony; the king was given a crown, the authority to call the toasts and lead the drinking and, sometimes, the more dubious privilege of paying the bill on the morning after.

"Cake and King were thus linked together as good-luck charms for the coming year. The cake, the bean and the pea were emblems of fertility and harvest, health and prosperity.... His [the King's] brief reign spanned the turn from one year to the next, and in his topsy-turvy kingdom conventions were triumphantly defied. Inhibitions were forgotten, characters changed, everyday restraints relaxed. The harsh certainties of life were softened in a haze of alcohol and high spirits."

In the kingdom of Twelfth Night, the Bean King and the Lord of Misrule were in many ways kindred spirits, as both were expected to infuse the ceremonies with a lively esprit de corps. And in fact, they almost certainly share a common ancestor: the King of Saturnalia, the ancient Lord of Misrule, who presided over the Roman festival held in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture and civilization.

Information for this piece were gathered from a 2004 piece in National Geographic and on-line sites including Wikipedia.

Mardi Gras Events

Mardi Gras in Milton kicks off with the Milton Mardi Gras Parade on Thursday, Feb. 19. The parade will begin at Milton High School and will end at Sun Trust Bank. Below is a list of local events taking place in celebration of Mardi Gras.

Milton:

•·         Milton Mardi Gras Parade

Thursday Feb. 19

Departing at 6 p.m. from Milton High School and ending at Sun Trust Bank

•·         Children's Mardi Gras Walk

Walk will occur on the Blackwater Heritage Trail

Saturday Feb. 21

Registration begins at 9:30 a.m.

Walk 10 a.m.-12 p.m.

This is a family-oriented walk in costumes. There will be a costume contest with prizes and children can enjoy story Time with Ms. Chatraw from the Library.

•·         13th ARC Santa Rosa Annual Charity Mardi Gras Ball

Saturday, Feb. 21, 2009 6-7 p.m. Social Hour 7 p.m. - until

NAS Whiting Field, Sikes Hall

Gulf Breeze:

•·         Krewe of Jesters formal Mardi Gras Ball, 7 p.m. to midnight.

Saint Sylvester's Catholic Parish Center

Saturday Feb. 14

Navarre:

•·         Navarre Beach Mardi Gras Parade and Party

Saturday Feb. 21 at 1 p.m.

The parade will begin at the intersection of Arkansas Street and Gulf Blvd and proceed east to the intersection in front of Cocodries. At that time the parade will disburse mostly by entering the park and proceeding towards Eglin AFB beach property.

Century:

•·         Third annual "Redneck Mardi Gras Ball

Saturday Feb. 21

Odom's Bar, 9520 N. Century Blvd., Century

Attire: Fancy dresses and overalls.

Social hour at 8 p.m., live music at 9 p.m. Admission: $5.

Pensacola:

•·         Krewe Of Lafitte Illuminated Parade

Friday Feb. 20 at 8 p.m.

The annual nighttime parade through Downtown Pensacola.

•·         Pensacola Grand Mardi Gras Parade

Saturday Feb. 21 at 2 p.m.

Parade will wind through historic Pensacola.

•·         Krewe of Wrecks Mardi Gras Parade

Sunday Feb. 22 at 2 p.m.

The popular annual parade at Pensacola Beach