| Welcome to My Mardi Gras Website By: Jason Osantowski | ||||||||||||||||||||
| English 200 Professor: Dr. Debra Combs |
This website is about the differences of how some cultures celebrate Mardi Gras and why they celebrate it. Mardi Gras means "Fat Tuesday" and it is the day before Ash Wednesday. The name Fat Tuesday originally comes from and ancient pagan custom of parading a fat ox around town. Although Mardi Gras is a Catholic holiday, it was based upon traditions of pagan holidays where people were emphasized to eat and drink a lot. The first culture that I am going to report about is the Indians of New Orleans, otherwise known as the Mardi Gras Indians. Tradition and history play a major role in the in the celebration of Mardi Gras for the Mardi Gras Indians. The ironic thing about these Indians is that they aren't even Indians at all. In fact, some time ago(after the ending of slavery)a group of Afican Americans got together, after few people in the ghetto felt that they couldn't participate in the typical New Orleans parade because historically, racism was a part of cultural separation. The Mardi Gras Indians named themselves after the Native American Indians for their assistance in easing the pain of slavery any way they could during the days of slavey. For these Mardi Gras Indians, Mardi Gras started out as a day where they would settle scores with each other. A major problem about this was that police were unable to intervene because of the general confusion and everyone was crowded in the streets and masked. This kept many people away from the parade. Since then, the Mardi Gras celebration for these Indians is now kept friendly and there are many different Mardi Gras Indian Tribes. Each Mardi Gras they now get together to show a theatrical display of self confidence and acknowledge the artistry and craftmanship of each others costume. | |||||||||||||||||||
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In the cities of some of the Roman Catholic countries, the custom of holding Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday has been continued since the Middle Ages. In England and some other European countries, Mardi Gras is also known as Shrove Tuesday. It is said that Shrove Tuesday is about the beginnings and the endings. In England the word shrove means confession. This is from the Christian custom of making a confession for a sin and recieving forgiveness for it. Some very popular traditions in England are the pancake supper and the pancake tosses. Since pancakes use up rich ingredients like butter and eggs, they can use these ingredients up before the Lenten fast. The pancake flipping contest consists of mainly housewives that require them to flip their pancakes three times before they cross the finish line. | Pancake flipping contest in England | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Violetta the Mugnaia of the Carnival of Ivrea |
In Poland they celebrate Fat Thursday, which is the Thursday before Ash Wednesday. I have always thought that Polish celebrated Fat Tuesday because that is when paczkys are sold, but according to the Polish they celebrate Fat Thursday not Fat Tuesday.(When you research a subject don't be surprised if there is something surprising.) In Italy they have the carnival of Ivrea that consists of having a parade with a queen who is the Mugnaia, which represents the heroine of battle who showers the crowd with sweets and charms. While the parade is going on there is a pretend battle going on in the battlefields. Instead of weapons they are throwing oranges at each other. After the parade and the battle the next act is to meet in the parish of San Grato and burn a scarlo. Once this is burnt, pipers lead the way to joyful music for a few minutes and then they fall silent. The pipers and the drummers then play a sad note as everyone moves towards Piazza Ottinetti(which is like a plaza or large town square.) The purpose of this carnival is to reenact a revolt that led to freedom from tyranny in the 1200's. Besides the reenactment, French people also pratice the customs of Lent and fast from meat during that period of time. In Eastern Lithuania many people dressed up as angels, devils, travellers, and beggers with masks on their heads that represented cranes, goats, and other animals. In Zemaitija they have records that show that Shrove Tuesday Celebrations were first recorded in Prussia in the fifteenth century. For the Zemaitian people, Shrove Tuesday is also pancake day. Shrove Tuesday celebrations include superstitions and fortune telling, putting on little theatrical skits, and pigging out like they won't have a descent meal for a few weeks. No matter where you go for Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Fat Thursday, Fasnacht, or Shove Tuesday, the basic partying is still the same despite some cultural differences. | |||||||||||||||||||
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