17 Super weird rituals Mardi Gras
And the fascinating story behind them.
Pearls! The parades! Hoarse revelation! Yes, it's this time of year: Tuesday Gras, where 1.4 million people come down on New Orleans to indulge in all kinds of celebration and celebration. (Not for nothing: the population of New Orleans of a watchmaking appropriate at a little less than 400,000.) Meanwhile, cities all around the country - including the mobile, Pensacola, Saint-Louis and Tulsa - Break less known but also also exuberant celebrations of their own. And chances are, your local pub has at least some dedicated drinks promotions.
In short, Mardi Gras is aA huge and almost inevitable annual tradition in American life. But you have already stopped for reallythink about that? Why, for example, can we dummize the bushels of vibrant plastic beads one to each other? Or why do the people (the brave) turn fiery sticks as they are little more than color guard batons? To shine light on these traditions totally out of there, we gathered the 15 strange rituals Tuesday Gras-and the fascinating history behind them below.
1 Bead
Yes, among the traditions of Mardi Gras, the beads of launch are perhaps the most banal. But digging in history and you will realize how strange is the ritual. Until the 1970s (the exact year was not identified), the pearls were glass and served as souvenirs, the upper class that generally traveled floats in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, for the visit of Hoilloi. Of course, it was considered dangerous in large bands of foreigners. The pearls are plastic.
2 Discount on the "key of the city"
Rex, the king of the carnival, is a fully honorary position. Every year, the Mayor of New Orleans "Anoints" a distinguished local New Orleans-in 2017, for example, the honored was a pediatric promotion and Professor LSUDr. Stephen Hales-By puts it back to him the "symbolic key" to the city. "According to the legend, this tradition stems from 1872, when RussianGrand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich Visited the city to check the rex inaugural parade. The role of REX was supposed to honor the Grand Duke and continues today.
3 Torchlight
Back to the 18th and 19th centuries, electric lighting was not available. Thus, to illuminate the parades, the organizers of the festival, the bearers of torches, usually slaves or African-American free - to walk in front of each float. These days, the tradition goes on, although it's more in the spectacle than anything else.
4 Masquerade masks
Whether it is the big on New Orleans or a smaller in some satellite premises, any celebration of Tuesday Gras is angry with masks. Originally, the masks were worn for the same reasons as the 15th century Venice masquerade masks: remove all inhibitions due to social constraints by hiding your identity. But get this: Nowadays, if you are on a float of New Orleans, it's actually neededby the law for you to be masked. (Exceptions are made for celebrities and other significant public figures, such as Rex.) And for more trivia, do not miss the40 facts that are so funny are difficult to believe.
5 Sitting on living scales
A wishing eye will note that the parade marks Mardi Gras are generally bordered with vibrating scales. Although it may seem a purely decorative tradition, the origin is rooted in the function: the children, in short, needed a way to see the festivities, the Ergo, the scales.
6 Change the date each year
Although Mardi Gras could resume a reputation for debauchery, thanks to the nudity of alcohol and public nudity, the celebration itself comes from Christianity. Mardi Gras marks the fat Tuesday, the end of the carnival period, which extends from the twelfth night to the ash Wednesday. (Mardi Gras, in French literally translates into "Mardi Gras") as such,Hanukka, the date moves each year. This year, it is March 5th. Next year, it will be on February 25th. In 2021, it will be February 16th.
7 The parades
Although Tuesday Gras itself has returned to the early 1700s - or, according to some historians, 1699 parades did not take off before 1837, when costume developers took the street to celebrate the carnival. For about twenty years, these parades ended unlike a post-superbowl parade: slightly violent and extremely destructive. During a time, New Orleans was considered a prohibition of the parades, until 1857, when the Krewe Comus (more on them in a little) cleaned the law and proved that the defects of Mardi Gras could be carried out like purely revealing cases.
8 Join Krewes
In New Orleans, the celebrations and parades of Tuesday Gras are generally presented by "Krewes" (yes, it is the actual spelling), of clandestine social organizations that are often named after mythical figures, such that Comus or Bacchus. The two largest Krewes are the Krewe of Rex and the Zulu and Plaisance Social Assistance Club, and they also put the two major parades.
9 Coconut
The pearls are one thing, but the most coveted "Jet" among Mardi Gras Requirers is the Zulu coconuts - also called "Golden nuggets". By WDSU, the new NBC subsidiary of New Orleans, the practice goes back to 1910; The Zulu Krewe could not pay glass beads, so they bought a coconut group to launch instead. At first, coconuts started hairy and uncorked. But over the years, coconuts are slowly becoming more liveable as an answer to the sea of pearls.
However, in 1987, New Orleans prohibited the practice of launching coconuts, due to a large number of parade participants who file applications for injury. These days, expect to have coconuts decorated softly.
10 Duplicate
In the 1950s, Rex Krewe was looking for a new "launch", so they consecrated the local artistH. Alvin Sharpe Design a new catchy idea. Sharpe came with the idea of light aluminum pieces adorned with a rex bust. The resulting rooms looked greatly like SpanishDoblón, which were called "duplicates" by English settlers, hence the American name.
11 Drinking ojen
Ojen, a flavored liquor of licorice not unless absinthe, was the traditional drink of Tuesday fat throughout the 20th century, until 2009, when production stopped and the last available bottle was sold. By legend, according toAtlanticThe popularity of Ojen can be found with two men:Paul andOscar GelpiThe owners of an alcohol distribution undertaking that has subscribed an armada of advertisements that Ojen was "superior" to the absinthe in all respects. Fortunately, starting in January 2016, Ojen's production was taken over by SAZERAC and is available for the purchase of a global new Orleans market (or special order).
12 Negotiation beads for bareniality
The first known instances of the most notorious practice of the festival (if you do not know what we are talking about, Google to your risks and perils) dates back to 1899 in the French quarter, allegedly as a way to attract tourists. But a century later, the trend became fully blown: according to research inSocial forcesIn the early 1990s, nearly 1,200 examples of pearls - failure failure occurred during Tuesday Gras.
13 Celebrities rolling in town
The Krewe of Bacchus, founded in 1968, regularly operate A-Listers like kings of his parade. In recent years,John C. Reilly (2015),Hugh Laurie (2014), andVA FERRELL (2012) served, but legends likeCharlton Heston (1983),Henry Winkler (1977), andBob hopes (1973) also account for Bacchus Alum.
14 Globally
New Orleans is the jewel of the crown of the celebrations of Tuesday Gras, but the event is really a world ritual. You will find similar events around the world, often under different names, including Italy (Giovedí Grasso), Germany (Fetter Donorstag), Czech Republic (Masopust) and France (Well, Mardi Gras).
15 Police climbing by closing all Shebang sauce
Every year, a long-term midnight clock, a quota of New Orleans on horseback rushed to the higher street of Bourbon and states that ashes on Wednesday officially started - and that Mardi Gras is officially completed.
16 Ridiculous cleaning
Of course, with each massive group, there is an equally massive cleaning. Like Mardi Gras is the largest group of the year, it also has the greatest cleaning. In fact, every year, the city of New Orleans getsAbout $ 1.5million on cleaning costs, most of which go towards the collection of 25 million pearls scattered around the city, then throw them into landfills.
17 Free donuts!
Yes, it's a fairly new tradition, but, in order to reduce scourge pearls on Tuesday Gras, Krispy Kreme to New Orleansoffers an attractive agreement: Bring wandering pearls, get free donuts. For every dozen bay books of Mardi Gras - an amount that should not be difficult to pave together as a result of the revelation - you bring in the store, they will give you a dozen donuts for free. It is a tradition that we hope that the test of time!
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