All because it’s carnival time
Well, it’s carnival time
Well it’s carnival time
Everybody’s having fun. – Al Johnson, “Carnival Time”
As I’ve written before, “even though today isn’t a holiday for most of you, it will always be one for me,” and though I don’t live in the city any longer I always try to avoid going anyplace on Fat Tuesday (in French, Mardi Gras) because it’s just too weird seeing everything open and everyone acting as though it isn’t a holiday. See, even though the occasion’s rationale is strictly Catholic (it’s the last day one can eat, drink and be merry before the solemn season of Lent begins tomorrow, Ash Wednesday), the actual celebration is purely pagan and comes down in a direct line from the Babylonian Zagmuk by way of Saturnalia and medieval Twelfth Night celebrations. The mock king who was sacrificed in the true king’s place became for centuries the Lord of Misrule, then eventually a mock king again…wearing raiment made to last one day and a cardboard crown, seated on a papier-mâché throne and dispensing plastic largesse to people who are not his subjects. That’s why it’s so funny to hear idiots babbling about the ribaldry and excess of carnival and attempting to shame women for baring their tits; the misbehavior is exactly the point, and the deities who preside over the festival are not those associated with Christianity, but rather the ancient pagan gods who, in New Orleans alone out of this whole grim, Puritanical country, have never fully relinquished their rule.
I didn’t realise the NO Mardi Gras was held so shortly after the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
Fun Fact: If all the participants in the 2014 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras were laid end to end no-one would be at all surprised.
Mardi Gras is a “movable feast” which is always 47 days before Easter, which is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. To make things worse, the full moon is determined from tables drawn up in the Middle Ages which may vary from the actual full moon by as much as two days. All in all, it’s only slightly more sensible than an unusually-simple modern income tax code, but the quick-and-dirty is that Mardi Gras can be as early as February 3rd and as late as March 9th. So we’re a tad on the late side this year.
Already lost at least one girl this carnival – a UNO student …
http://scaredmonkeys.com/2014/03/02/19-year-old-hayley-howard-missing-since-3114-in-new-orleans-louisiana/
I love Mardi Gras … I love when the chicks come into the bar all dressed up in their ball dresses. I love people having a good time – and I let them get even louder on Mardi Gras.
But sooooo many people think Mardi Gras is about consuming alcohol until you’re in a coma – or until you’re six foot tall and bulletproof – or until you’re puking your guts out on the sidewalk.
Thanks for this post. I just learned a few things. One was, my 17yr old daughter knew more about this than I did, lol. 😉
There’s a lot more in my previous columns for the day:
http://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/mardi-gras/
http://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/fat-tuesday/
http://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/mardi-gras-2013/
Love the explanation
, we all need some good times….
Although the festival of Carnival or Mardi Gras may have pagan origins, you will agree Maggie that the reason New Orleans celebrates Mardi Gras is because of the Catholic heritage brought by the French settlers of Louisianne. (Later Louisiana after the U.S. bought the territory from France.) Which makes it really sad that the American Catholic Church has absorbed so much of the puritanism of American culture that instead of embracing Mardi Gras, it runs away from it. Our local parish and other Catholic parishes in the Archdiocese of Washington are holding “pancacke dinners” tonight. While eating pancakes on this day is a tradition, to me the emphasis on this is more to discourage individual Catholics or families from going to bars or restaurants where REAL Mardi Gras celebrations is taking place.
Sometimes I think it’s a wonder American Catholics don’t substitute grape juice for wine in the Eucharist like their teetotaling Protestant cousins.
Well, every organization, these days, must play the “political correctness” game. We get upset at politicians and sports figures who “sext”. The Navy has had a rotating door of alcohol “DE-glamorization” programs for the last 20 years. The Catholic Church is not exempt from the PC pressure either.
It’s also important to remember that NOLA Mardi Gras tends to be an adult affair and families with children – in the church – will often seek the Church’s help in coordinating “alternate” and more “family friendly” types of Mardi Gras events.
There ARE people who scratch their heads and really don’t totally “get” Mardi Gras – and count me as one. I rarely drink – and so many people I know – when we go out to do something “Mardi Gras” – just seem to believe this is the one time of the year to get shitfaced drunk. I don’t dig that – getting drunk makes me feel bad – sometimes for days after. I do not like not being in control of myself.
So when I go to a parade – and some shitface pukes on my wife’s dress – I feel a strong need to punch the fucker. But then, hey – isn’t getting drunk and puking what Mardi Gras is all about? Who am I to spoil the revelry?
Drinking to extremes (and yes, sometimes even to death) is a natural result of the American/puritannical practice of trying to keep our kids “innocent” (ignorant) until the second they turn 18, or in this case, 21. Maybe some of Maggie’s European readers can tell us more detail, but I have it from several sources that this unsafe binge-drinking behavior simply doesn’t happen in countries (primarily France and Italy) where everyone is introduced to drinking, and sees the result of overdoing it, as pre-teenagers.
I can’t help thinking that there’s a good lesson about sex in there as well.
I can offer some support to your thesis JD.
When I was a kid it was pretty common for Australians to introduce their children to drinking. In my case it started aged seven with a small glass of my grandfather’s home-brewed ale on Sunday afternoons. By twelve I was having a wine with meals two or three times a week.
It was no panacea. I have never been much of a drinker but other members of my family who went through the same process became alcoholics. Australia then, as now, was famous for it’s alcohol consumption (one of our Prime Ministers was in the Guinness Book of Records for beer drinking).
But since the practice has fallen out of favour Australia’s binge drinking problem, especially among youth, has only gotten worse.
But the very worse of the alcohol ‘bottlenecks’ was abolished in the 1970s. From the 20s until then the puritans had tried to enforce the notion that men should be home with their families for dinner by enforcing a 6pm closing time for liquor outlets. This resulted in what was called the six o’clock swill when workers would knock off between four and five and spend the time until six at the bar downing as many drinks as they could in the allotted time. They then got into their cars and tried to drive home (this was before RBT of course).
I’m sure I don’t need to describe the resultant carnage but it still went on for decades.
I wouldn’t say children are exposed to the consequences of over-drinking in France, but they are exposed to the drinks themselves. And later, they are exposed to the consequences. I don’t like the taste of most alcoholic beverages, so I rarely drink (and get drunk pretty fast as a consequence) and I’m completely uninterested in drinking myself senseless.
About sex, we’re not shielded from it until we’re of age. I remember finding my parents’ porn lying around when I was 12 and sometimes even finding them watching it. And we’re taught that we should use condoms (one ad campaign by the health ministry has a condom saying “I am your friend” in several languages). Because of that, when I had the opportunity to have sex, I had condoms with me (and despite both of us not having any experience, it went pretty well).
One more thing…one of the books in your short story collection Ladies of the Night is “Carnival“. That story takes place during the French Revolution after the First Republic has banned the festival. To say much more would ruin the story, but if you click on the link I posted, you can read the story for free at this blog.
Laissez-les bon temps rouler! The other day one of my friends just HAD to call me to inform me that she was on her way to the Zulu Ball. **pouts**
Maggie, you have made me more appreciative of New Orleans’ (along with Louisiana in general) positive attributes than ever before.
Thank the Gods there is still the living, breathing shrine called New Orleans.