Where Did Mardi Gras Come From?

How did the religiously rooted pre-Lenten party come to be the way it is? Read on for some Mardi Gras history, and get an idea of what there really is to celebrate. Mardi Gras has become a popular excuse for participants to have a good time and go wild. But the party owes its start to the Christian calendar, which marks Mardi Gras, French for "Fat Tuesday," as the last day of a period of indulging before 40 days of fasting and abstinence for Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras celebrations are rooted in early Roman times, when participants preceded a similar Lenten season of fasting with a period of feasting and celebration.While the most popular Mardi Gras festivities now occur closer to Mardi Gras itself, Christians traditionally began their celebration season, known as Carnival, 12 days after Christmas, on Jan. 6, a date known to Christians as the Epiphany. The "Carnival" calls up Christian images, as it comes from the Latin words Carne Vale, meaning "farewell to the ...

There are varied opinions on the origins of Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday in French, the English call the holiday Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day. No matter where it takes place or what it is called Mardi Gras is an age old celebration. Carnival is considered the mother of Mardi Gras and originated in Rome leading to a popular way of feasting and being hedonistic before Lent. The celebration as it is known today is still celebrated in South America and in predominately Catholic countries in Europe. Different cultures all over the world have times set aside for community jubilation and in most cases are celebrations of the New Year. The act of celebrating the New Year has actually been proven in findings by anthropologists all over the planet. The exact timing varied among the different cultures from Mid December to Mid February. The tradition of the grotesque looking figures seen in current Mardi Gras floats and Carnival characters goes back to the Roman festival of ...  more

Mardi Gras was a tradition initiated centuries ago in Europe. As far back as the second century, Ancient Romans observed a circus-type festival to honor a pagan Roman deity. When Christians arrived in Rome, they decided to incorporate certain aspects of such rituals into the new faith rather than abolish them all together. From Rome, the celebration spread to other European countries. In medieval times, monarchs and lords would ceremoniously conscript new knights into service and hold feasts in their honor prior to Lent. The Carnival was created in the 16th century as a period of merriment that would serve as a prelude to the penitential season of Lent. In 1699, the French explorer Pierre LeMoyne Sieur dIberville brought the tradition to the New World. The festival had been celebrated as a major holiday in Paris since the Middle Ages. In the early 19th century, New Orleans celebration of Mardi Gras consisted mainly of maskers on foot, in carriages and on horseback. In 1837, a ...  more