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Colors of Mardi
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Mardi
Gras is a traditional holiday celebrated in many of the southern
states of the USA. The most famous celebration takes place in
New Orleans, Louisiana. The people there enjoy this celebration
by going to parades where they catch "beads, doubloons,
cups, and trinkets" that are all thrown from floats. Mardi
Gras came to the South through its French heritage in 1699.
Early explorers celebrated this French Holiday on the banks of
the Mississippi River.
Party goers have masquerade balls and dress up in costumes for these events.
King Cakes are eaten during this holiday. Mardi Gras is known as
the "biggest free show on earth."
Mardi Gras is French for
"Fat Tuesday" and of course is celebrated on a Tuesday. The
date can fall between February 3 and March 9 depending on the
Catholic Church. Mardi Gras is always 47 days before Easter
Sunday. Traditionally, it is the last day
for Christians to indulge—and often overindulge—before Ash
Wednesday starts the sober weeks of fasting that come with Lent.
Formally known as Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras has long been a
time of extravagant fun for European Christians.
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Colors
The official colors for
Mardi Gras are purple, green, and gold. These colors where
chosen in 1872 by the King of Carnival, Rex. He chose these
colors to stand for the following:
Purple
represents justice
Green stands for faith
Gold stands for power
The
Mardi Gras season begins about two weeks before Fat Tuesday.
During those two weeks, parades can be viewed nightly and on
weekends. Almost all businesses are closed for Lundi Gras (Fat
Monday) and for Mardi Gras itself.
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Krewes:
New Orleans Royalty
Mardi Gras has long combined wild street activities open
to everyone with events organized by private clubs known as
krewes. Today, thousands of people belong to about 60 krewes
that plan the parades and balls of New Orleans' Mardi Gras. The
oldest krewe, the Krewe of Comus, was founded in 1857 by men who
feared the outrageous antics of Mardi Gras would lead to the
holiday being outlawed. They hoped that secret societies could
keep the celebrations alive.
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King
Cake
One
way you can tell that Mardi Gras season is here, is by the King
Cakes that pop up everywhere. A King Cake can be best described
as a circular, braided cinnamon coffee roll, 12" to
24" in diameter, with lots of pretty purple, gold and green
icing (and of course, there is a little plastic baby inside).
How did this custom start? The king cake traditionally
was served on "Little Christmas" or "Kings'
Day" other names for the Feast of the Epiphany, celebrated
Jan. 6. Since Epiphany comes on the twelfth day of the Christmas
celebration, it also became known as Twelfth Night. The cake was baked on Epiphany Eve and served the
following afternoon to family and friends. Today, the cake is
served throughout the "Epiphany season," or until
Mardi Gras.
By the Middle Ages, veneration
of the three wise men had spread throughout Europe and Epiphany
became known as The Feast of the Three Holy Kings. The cake was
baked in honor of the Magi.
 So,
what's this thing about a plastic baby inside? Yep. In every
one! The general rule is that you try to get a piece of the cake
without the baby, because if you get the baby, you buy the next
King Cake!
Latin Americans, like New
Orleanians, place a figure representing the Christ child inside
the cake. In other cultures, the king cake might contain a coin,
bean, pecan or pea.
In medieval France, the coin
finder was expected to make a contribution to a worthy cause,
usually the education of a deserving youngster. In some parts of
Europe, those who find the bean and pea are king and queen for
the day.
In New Orleans, the person who
receives the piece of cake containing a "baby" must
provide the king cake for the next gathering of the season. (In
some offices, king cake has become a daily treat for the full
length of Carnival.)
Local bakeries report selling
4,000-5,000 king cakes each day during the Carnival season, and
cakes are shipped to destinations worldwide.
Traditional king cake is
similar to brioche, a sweetened yeast bread, its only adornment
a sprinkling of colored sugar. Today king cakes with an
unprecedented array of fillings and flavorings have outdistanced
the sugared one in popularity.
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