What’s Shrove Tuesday?

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Mardi Gras, which is French for “Fat Tuesday,” is an annual celebration that takes place before Lent. Also called Mardi Gras, Mardi Gras, is usually the last day of Carnival, a celebration that lasts from a week to a month in the Christian, mostly Roman Catholic tradition. Mardi Gras is presented as one grand feast, a boisterous vale de carne – or “goodbye to the meat” – that serves as the last sowing of wild oats before the sober season of Lent heralded by Ash Wednesday begins.

There are many places famous for their Mardi Gras celebrations, including New Orleans, Louisiana; Mobile, Alabama; and Galveston, Texas, in the United States, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Venice, Italy; and Mazatlan, Mexico, internationally. In essence, the celebration of Shrove Tuesday has a lot to do with satiating appetites before the Lenten season of penance and self-denial, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter. Another name for Mardi Gras is “Pancake Tuesday,” which is a reference to the custom of feasting on pancakes and finishing all the eggs and dairy products often prohibited during the Lenten fast.

Although Mardi Gras and Carnival customs around the world are different, there are a few elements that are shared by almost everyone: music; bold and colorful costumes and/or masks; and cheeky cheerfulness. The festivities attract tourists from all over the world.

Perhaps the most famous Mardi Gras celebration in the United States is in New Orleans, Louisiana. While there is no historical confirmation of exactly when the first Mardi Gras was celebrated in New Orleans, it is believed that early French settlers brought the custom with them to Louisiana. Popular legend assigns the honor of transplanting Mardi Gras to the New World to a French explorer who arrived at the Mississippi River in 1699 and named his landing site Point du Mardi Gras, after the holiday celebrated that day in his homeland. Eighteenth-century documents refer to well-established pre-Lenten traditions such as masked balls.

Beginning about two weeks before Mardi Gras, parades organized by groups or clubs called krewes begin moving through the streets of New Orleans and surrounding communities. Krewe members generally pay membership fees, or dues, which are used to fund the construction of their parade floats and the costumes they wear. Some krewe have a long historical tradition. The Mistick Krewe of Comus held its first parade in 1857 and still holds a dance every eve of Mardi Gras. Major krewes such as the Krewe of Endymion and the Krewe of Tucks often have their own parade routes.

The biggest and most famous krewes hold their parades closer to Shrove Tuesday. Over the years, the parades have featured celebrities such as Louis Armstrong and Danny Kaye and draw large crowds of spectators, who gather to compete for the “throws” thrown by krewe members riding in the floats. Popular throws are strings of colorful plastic beads, small, inexpensive toys, and plastic or aluminum “doubloons.” Jazz bands, traveling clubs and small parades stroll through the city. Major parades avoid the Quarter due to the logistical problems presented by its narrow streets.
The traditional colors of Mardi Gras are purple for “justice”, green for “faith” and gold for “power”. These colors are evident throughout Mardi Gras and the weeks leading up to it, from the revelers’ attire to the food to the tokens that are tossed from the parade floats. The King Cake, a popular Mardi Gras staple, is decorated with sugar dyed in these colors. The King Cake is a coffee cake baked in the shape of a ring and glazed with a plain sugar glaze, then sprinkled with gold, purple and green colored sugar. Inside the King Cake, the baker has hidden a small plastic child, symbolizing the Christ Child. It is said that whoever finds the baby in his slice of King Cake can expect good luck in the coming year and should host the next King Cake party.

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