Mardi Gras is the love of life. It is the harmonic convergence of our food, our music, our creativity, our eccentricity, our neighborhoods, and our joy of living. – Chris Rose, 1 Dead in Attic
It’s just not possible to explain Mardi Gras to those who have never lived in the New Orleans area, because they absolutely will not get it. It’s not simply a matter of their never having experienced it, because mere attendance won’t put one into the proper state of mind; I daresay I could sit on a Vieux Carré balcony on Fat Tuesday, guessing whether each person who passed below was a local or a visitor, and achieve over 90% accuracy. It’s not simply that the visitors are the ones who are either stiff as boards or wildly out of control, nor the fact that most of them don’t wear costumes (I rarely did, either), nor the fact that most of the really obnoxious and/or disgusting drunks are hundreds or thousands of kilometers from home. All of those things are merely symptoms of the same general aura of Not-Getting-It-ness which manifests itself either in the belief that the holiday is just another excuse to get totally bombed out of one’s skull, or in that ultimate statement of Carnival Cluelessness, “How can a woman expose herself for a string of plastic beads?” Though the festival has a Christian excuse, it is (like Christmas) wholly pagan; indeed, much of its symbolism and customs have come down through the centuries from the Roman Saturnalia and even older celebrations, and Yule gives way seamlessly to Carnival on King Day. Carnival is also like Christmas in another important way; it is not a day but a whole season, and having the right spirit is far more important than the observation of any single ritual or combination of traditions. A person who goes through the motions during Yuletide but doesn’t have the “Christmas spirit” will not have a true experience of the festival, and the exact same thing is true of Mardi Gras. In a way, the spirit of Mardi Gras is the spirit of New Orleans, and anyone who is unwilling or unable to appreciate her style will never, ever be able to appreciate her signature holiday.
Well, I only get the “itch” to participate in Mardi Gras about as often as Spock goes through Pon Farr … so I’ll raise my hand as one that doesn’t get it. 😛
I mean, I was raised only two hours from here … went into the city many times … all my family on my Dad’s side have solid long-standing ties with the city … my Dad’s first job (waiting tables) was in the city. I personally worked in the city not far from the French Quarter – but only about a year until that bitch Katrina showed up. It still only take me 20 minutes or so to get into the city from where I live now. But it just never “bit into” me!
LOL – I have two friends … Yankees they are … one is from Brooklyn and one is from Connecticut and oddly enough – I think THEY get it. One is on the Endymion Krewe and the other always rents one of the balconies overlooking the parade route in the French Quarter. He invites me every year to take part in that – and usually I WILL show up … normally for the Endymion Parade. The Endymion Parade – well that’s pretty much the extent of my “Mardi Gras” season. 🙁
I haven’t even eaten a single bite of King Cake this year! Well, I finished a “bulk” in December and now I’m “cutting” … so simple carbs are off the menu for me (especially the carb bombs from hell that are called “King Cakes”!! LOL).
God … I think I’m going to tear up here … I have to stop writing.
I am such a fucking loser!!!! 😀
I didn’t get any King Cake this year either due to a similar carb cutting. It’s so depressing. I can practically taste it on my tongue. Nonetheless, I am celebrating in spirit here in Chicago, which has a significant population of transplanted Creoles.
I have a diabetic sister-in-law who made some “sugar free” King Cakes. She offered me one.
I told her … “No sugar? What the hell’s the point??” 😛
Normally I put King Cake into the “fun carb” category – and it’s definitely on the menu. However, I had so much fun “bulking” for the last three months I really didn’t keep an eye on bodyfat – so it’s getting a bit out of control. I couldn’t help it though – every pound I put on made me stronger – apparently even the FAT made me stronger! LOL. Oh well – it’s time to do away with that now!!!
LOL! I’d say the same thing. It’s like vegan bacon or fat-free chocolate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXhJPey3i_A
^What to do with “sugar free” King Cake.
I’m going to be in a wedding in June so…carb cutting. Boo.
That reminds me of a couple of Jim Gaffigan quotes:
“Lean Pockets, I don’t even wanna know what’s in those. I wonder what the directions are on a box of Lean Pockets: ‘Remove from box, place directly in toilet.’ Flush Pocket!”
“They recently invented the breakfast hot pocket, FINALLY. I can’t think of a better way to start the day; Good morning… you’re about to call in sick. Now I can have a Hot Pocket for breakfast, a Hot Pocket for lunch, and be DEAD by dinner. (whisper) Dead Pocket.”
LOL! Dead Pocket.
So those of us not native to the New Orleans area don’t get Mardi Gras and it can’t be explained to us. You felt the need to point this out to us because…?
She didn’t say that. I think Maggie probably knows a few people who aren’t “from” NOLA that “get” the Mardi Gras scene. Similarly – not ALL of us who live there (or close to there) really “get it” … like me (I don’t “get it” personally).
But … I AM glad that it brings a lot of joy to a lot of people down here – and apparently to people from far-flung areas of this great nation and internationally as well. I like the way it brings people together (regardless of race or political affiliation).
She did say that in the very first sentence of the post! She then complains about visitors not “getting it” but never bothers to explain what the Mardi Gras spirit is. Very frustrating and unhelpful.
Wrong – she didn’t say anything about you had to be “native” to the city to understand. What she said that … it’s impossible to explain it to anyone WHO HAS NOT LIVED IN NOLA AREA because they wouldn’t get it.
There are PLENTY of non-natives who live here now that understand the tradition even better than some of us locals.
[…] celebration is much older than Christianity, and Maggie McNeill of The Honest Courtesan blog gives a fantastic history of Mardi Gras and other Carnival celebrations throughout the Latin-speaking world. Mardi Gras/Carnival is itself […]
I’m not sure I would get New Orleans version because the carnival is probably celebrated very differently there than in Italy but I certainly get the the Carnevale. In Venezia, the attraction is partly the food and drink, but’s it’s also the gambling, the anonymity of the masks, the under current of violence, sensuality and excitement. If you watch Italian porn, girls will often wear the Columbina and Bauta. At the carnevale I wear the Columbina but I like guys to wear the medico della peste (it’s more phallic).
I think it would be fun to watch. But I’m probably another one of those who don’t get it.
I’ve been there, once, but I don’t get it either. (Nor did I manage to find anyone who spoke French, except a tour guide with a New York accent…)
The real mystery of New Orleans for me is, why in the world would anyone move back there (or want to rebuild it) after Katrina? (Especially if they’re not black, given the mayor’s comments right after that event.) Better to let the swamp reclaim it. It would save lives, too.
Why do people insist on living in California, with all the earthquakes, or in Hawaii, with the volcanoes and tsunami risk?
Earthquake risk can be pretty much eliminated by building codes — and has been. The big one in ’89, for instance (which I was in) killed only those on the Cypress structure (built early ’60s) and two people on the Bay Bridge.
But there’s no way to build safely in New Orleans without somehow putting the levees and other flood control works in trustworthy hands. Which won’t happen.
The big thing leftists don’t get is that crooks in the business world can at least sometimes be hauled into court and made to pay when they do damage. But bureaucrats can’t. I doubt any of the ones supposedly responsible for those levees got into trouble for it — at most a few of them might have been asked to retire (with full benefits).
When the crooks in the business world are in bed with the bureaucrats (or worse, elected officials), they are just as immune. I think there are things which could be done about this. Will they be? Not any time soon, though of course soon is not the same as always.
I sometimes feel that way explaining Halloween to Europeans- its not about any particular tradition, but the very idea that an entire community of strangers can suddenly all party together, all at once.
The one and only time I visited New Orleans it was August, I was 15 and accompanying my mother. Apart from the many specific pleasant memories I have from that trip I also remember a general feeling that had to do with the way people behaved in the street. In particular I think it’s the evening street life that I remember, where there was some much interaction between strangers, local or not. It was suprising to see this in the U.S. although it was quite familiar to me, maybe because it appeared similar to the way people go about in my hometown, Athens, Greece. Which brings me to my point, which is that from what I hear and what I’ve seen the Carnival period in Greece is very similar to Mardi Gras. The city centers are basically one giant street party, live music bands are on parade, lots of christianized pagan rituals happen in public places and generally profanity and public sexuality is tolerated or often even sanctioned by tradition. It’s celebrated everywhere in Greece but in some cities the festival is more orgiastic than in others. If someone is in Greece in early March and has a chance I would recommend carnival in Grevena, Xanthi, Kozani, Galaxidi and Tyrnavos.
Greece is pretty high on my list of places I’d like to visit if I’m ever able to travel. Now I have something specific to consider besides the most obvious (the Acropolis, Olympia).