Mardi Gras is a 300-plus-year-old holiday — one of the longest, most widely celebrated holidays across the world, bringing together countries with vastly different cultures and backgrounds to celebrate in their own unique ways.
Better known as “Carnival” in much of the world, countries like Belgium and France use the holiday as a celebration to welcome spring with symbolic flowers and seasonal fruits. Other countries stay true to their respective cultures and throw massive parties in the name of the holiday.
Mardi Gras is more than just a day, it’s an entire season. The Mardi Gras season technically begins on the Christian holiday of January 6, known as Epiphany, or “Three Kings Day” or “The Twelfth Day” and ends on Fat Tuesday.
The biggest Mardi Gras celebration I’ve ever been to is in New Orleans. Elaborate, colorful ladders have lined the streets of New Orleans during Mardi Gras parades for years. The tradition caters to the younger audience attending Mardi Gras for pure entertainment. Since kids are usually too short to catch the parade from ground level, the ladders are equipped with a small ledge at the top, making for the best seat in the house.
Mardi Gras concludes on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which marks the start of Lent. For 40 days, Christians voluntarily abstain from a number of vices and privileges as a symbol of sacrifice. So Mardi Gras is considered the last chance to participate in absolute gluttony and indulge in the variety of foods unique to the Carnival celebration.
Masks are a tradition at Mardi Gras — they were first implemented as a way of evading social constraints and stereotypes to provide Carnival goers the freedom to be whomever they want to be and socialize with whomever they wish. That tradition has held strong and added to the excitement of the celebration over the years and all Carnival goers are encouraged to wear a mask on Fat Tuesday. Float riders are required — by law — to wear masks throughout the parade.
To officially end Carnival celebrations, New Orleans police officers on foot and on horseback move through the crowds on Bourbon Street at Midnight — usually accompanied by the Mayor.
So happy Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Pancake Day, or whatever you call it — just a few more hours ‘till the party ends.
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