History of Mardi Gras-- A Pagan Tradition
Mardi Gras, or “Fat Tuesday,” is actually a French Catholic tradition in relation to Lent. In the Lenten season fasting begins on Ash Wednesday in remembrance of the Holy Week before Easter. Mardi Gras arrived in Louisiana with the Le Moyne brothers in 1699. Sent by King Louis XIV to defend France’s claim on the area of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana in America, the brothers traveled up the Mississippi River and made camp about 60 miles downriver of where New Orleans is today. The day they made camp happened to be France’s Mardi Gras day. New Orleans help begin Mardi Gras, even though the actual celebration wasn’t established until Mobile was settled in 1702.
Although we can trace its history to the Romans, a French-Canadian explorer,
Jean Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville, landed on a plot of ground 60 miles
directly south of New Orleans in 1699 and called it "Pointe due Mardi Gras."
He also established "Fort Louis de la Louisiane" (which is now Mobile) in 1702. In 1703, the tiny
settlement of Fort Louis de la Mobile celebrated the very first Mardi Gras.
In 1704, Mobile established a secret society (Masque de la Mobile) ...
similar to those who form our current Mardi Gras Krewes. It lasted until 1709. In 1710,
the "Boeuf Graf Society" was formed and paraded from 1711 through 1861. The procession was held
with a huge bull's head pushed alone on wheels by 16 men. This occurred on Fat Tuesday.
By the 1730s, Mardi Gras was celebrated openly in New Orleans.
In the early 1740s, Louisiana's Governor
The Marquis de Vaudreuil established elegant society balls --
the model for the New Orleans Mardi Gras balls of today.
The history of Mardi Gras began long before Europeans set foot in the New World.
In mid February the ancient Romans celebrated the Lupercalia,
a circus like festival not entirely unlike the Mardi Gras we are familiar with today.
When Rome embraced Christianity, the early Church fathers decided
it was better to incorporate certain aspects of pagan rituals into the new
faith rather than attempt to abolish them altogether. Carnival became
a period of abandon and merriment that preceded the penance of Lent,
thus giving a Christian interpretation to the ancient custom.
The Church gave into the pagans who wanted to prance their false Gods into the streets
just as the Egyptians did in the day of Moses.
The Church, the Catholic Church, compromised their morals in order to win more
converts into the Chuch and, therefore,
knowingly collect a much more substantial amount of money for the Chuch.
The tradition continues each year with all the false Gods depicted on the floats.
However, eventhough in our modern day world most people do not actually adore
these man-made Gods on these floats;
the devil still has a great time during Mardi Gras season
because of all the drunkedness,
rioting in the streets, many fights and drugs,
and just plain "SIN" going on in the streets for a whole two weeks.
Sodom and Gommorah , I suspect, must have looked a lot like our Mardi Gras.
As a Christian I do not attend Mardi Gras.
by Dorothy Fontaine Simon
