Mardi Gras, A History

Above is a drawing of
 New Orleans Mardi Gras
Courtesy of Hardy's Article.

Since it is Mardi Gras Season in New Orleans, I became more and more interested in the history of Mardi Gras.  Mardi Gras today is very multicultural and all around amazingly foreign to me.  In seeing all the parades and everyone getting dressed up, I've been interested in how it began.  While doing some digging, I found an article by Arthur Hardy called, "A History of Mardi Gras" explaining the breakdown of how Mardi Gras came to be. According to the article, Mardi Gras has a great deal to do with Christianity and ancient African Tribal rituals.  Mardi Gras day takes place on Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, a Christian tradition.  In this period, Christians give up food or alcohol, or something they enjoy (for me, it was teasing my brothers as a child) and truly reflect and pray for forty days.  Fat Tuesday is the day before this time of prayer and reflection, where everyone gets their one last hurrah.  I think this is so interesting how that celebration melded with African tribal rituals of fertility that apparently 'welcomed the Spring.'  I think it is so interesting that those two religions and culture melded together.  Now, I think it's definitely melded into a 21st century celebration, with all of these roots, plus more, like the Mardi Gras Indians and the many different Krewes, and the walking groups.  I look forward to learning more about these groups and more fully understanding Mardi Gras.