Mardi Gras literally translates to Fat Tuesday and the signature sweet of that Carnival feast is the King Cake.
The history of the cake is intertwined with Carnival’s history, and it's is believed to have its roots in ancient pagan festivals. (Halloween from Samhain, Christmas from Yule).
Carnival had two influences, Lupercalia and Saturnalia. Set in mid-February, Lupercalia celebrated rushing in the fertility spring, both for the coming harvest and humans.
Saturnalia, celebrated in December included the ritual of temporarily switching the hierarchical roles through a bean hidden inside a cake.
The bean hidden inside the Saturnalia cake was the fava bean, and he or she who found it would be temporarily crowned ruler for the day.
This ancient legume was considered magical in pagan times.
As Christianity became the predominant religion in Western Europe, people still clung to their traditional celebrations, but the significance changed.
During the Saturnalia the ‘king of the day’ was chosen by lot, using a bean concealed in a galette.
It was only in the Middle Ages that this cake ceremony began to be associated with the festival of Epiphany.” January 6th became the day of the Epiphany.
The Epiphany, also known as Three Kings Day, marks the beginning of King Cake season in New Orleans.
Three Kings day was celebrated in various Medieval European countries.
Francophone countries had the Galette des Rois. Spain had the Rosca de Reyes, Portugal the Bolo Rei. The French cake galette is a flaky, golden, puff pastry with frangipane inside.
Food historian, Pierre Leclercq, believes that this cake is very similar to the Saturnalia cake, given its hue and shape that reflect the sun.
So, with Pagan roots, the Baby, Jesus and Fat Tuesday, enjoy your King Cake.
The origins of Mardi Gras can be traced to medieval Europe, passing through Rome and Venice in the 17th and 18th centuries to the French House of the Bourbons.
From here, the traditional revelry of "Boeuf Gras," or fatted calf, followed France to her colonies.
On March 2, 1699, French-Canadian explorer Jean Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville arrived at a plot of ground 60 miles directly south of New Orleans, and named it "Pointe du Mardi Gras" when his men realized it was the eve of the festive holiday.
Bienville 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 America's very first Mardi Gras.
In 1704, Mobile established a secret society (Masque de la Mobile), similar to those that form our current Mardi Gras krewes. It lasted until 1709.
In 1710, the "Boeuf Gras Society" was formed and paraded from 1711 through 1861.
The procession was held with a huge bull's head pushed along on wheels by 16 men.
Later, Rex would parade with an actual bull, draped in white and signaling the coming Lenten meat fast.
This occurred on Fat Tuesday.
New Orleans was established in 1718 by Bienville. By the 1730s, Mardi Gras was celebrated openly in New Orleans, but not with the parades we know today. In the early 1740s, Louisiana's governor, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, established elegant society balls, which became the model for the New Orleans Mardi Gras balls of today.
The earliest reference to Mardi Gras "Carnival" appears in a 1781 report to the Spanish colonial governing body. That year, the Perseverance Benevolent & Mutual Aid Association was the first of hundreds of clubs and carnival organizations formed in New Orleans.
By the late 1830s, New Orleans held street processions of maskers with carriages and horseback riders to celebrate Mardi Gras. Dazzling gaslight torches, or "flambeaux," lit the way for the krewe's members and lent each event an exciting air of romance and festivity.
In 1856, six young Mobile natives formed the Mistick Krewe of Comus, invoking John Milton's hero Comus to represent their organization.
Comus brought magic and mystery to New Orleans with dazzling floats (known as tableaux cars) and masked balls. Krewe members remained anonymous.
In 1870, Mardi Gras' second Krewe, the Twelfth Night Revelers, was formed.
This is also the first recorded account of Mardi Gras "throws."
Newspapers began to announce Mardi Gras events in advance, and they even printed "Carnival Edition" lithographs of parades' fantastic float designs (after they rolled, of course - themes and floats were always carefully guarded before the procession).
At first, these reproductions were small, and details could not be clearly seen.
But beginning in 1886 with Proteus' parade "Visions of Other Worlds," these chromolithographs could be produced in full, saturated color, doing justice to the float and costume designs of Carlotta Bonnecase, Charles Briton and B.A. Wikstrom.
Each of these designers' work was brought to life by talented Parisian paper-mache' artist Georges Soulie', who for 40 years was responsible for creating all of Carnival's floats and processional outfits.
1872 was the year that a group of businessmen invented a King of Carnival, Rex, to preside over the first daytime parade.
To honor the visiting Russian Grand Duke Alexis Romanoff, the businessmen introduced Romanoff's family colors of purple, green and gold as Carnival's official colors.
Purple stands for justice; gold for power; and green for faith.
This was also the Mardi Gras season that Carnival's improbable anthem, "If Ever I Cease to Love," was cemented, due in part to the Duke's fondness for the tune.
The following year, floats began to be constructed entirely in New Orleans instead of France, culminating with Comus' magnificent "The Missing Links to Darwin's Origin of Species," in which exotic paper-mache' animal costumes served as the basis for Comus to mock both Darwin's theory and local officials, including Governor Henry Warmoth.
In 1875, Governor Warmoth signed the "Mardi Gras Act," making Fat Tuesday a legal holiday in Louisiana, which it still is.
Like Comus and the Twelfth Night Revelers, most Mardi Gras krewes today developed from private social clubs with restrictive membership policies. Since all of these parade organizations are completely funded by their members, New Orleanians call it the "Greatest Free Show on Earth!"
Voodoo came to New Orleans in the early 1700s, through slaves brought from Africa's western “slave coast.”
Like so many things New Orleans, Voodoo was then infused with the city's dominant religion, Catholicism, and became a Voodoo-Catholicism hybrid sometimes referred to as New Orleans Voodoo.
Voodoo is a fusion of religious practices from Africa that is a derivative of the world’s oldest known religions.
It has been around since the beginning of human civilization.
There is no single founder of Voodoo and there is no approximate date for the origin of Voodoo spirituality.
According to the beliefs of Voodoo, and much like Shinto, there are thousands of Spirits that interact with humanity.
These Spirits, called Lwa were once human.
Voodoo vs Hoodoo-Are they the same thing or totally different?
Both Voodoo and Hoodoo are a melting pot of different beliefs, practices and religious elements; both have roots in Africa with aspects of ancient worship.
This is where their similarities end.
Voodoo vs Hoodoo – Differences
Voodoo is a religion that has two markedly different branches – New Orleans/Louisiana Vodou and Haitan Vodou. Voodoo is a religion that’s practices by thousands if not millions of people.
Hoodoo is not a religion, rather a set of practices that draw heavily from folk magic, especially that which originated on West Africa and tends to be practiced in Louisiana, though it’s practice is not exclusive to that region.
As Voodoo is an established and recognised religion that has set and established practices and traditions.
It has it’s own leaders, teachers, representatives, services and rituals.
It’s this organization that makes Voodoo and Hoodoo different.
Hoodoo has it’s base in folk magic and folk traditions calling on Loas using the saints from Roman Catholicism; where as Voodoo invoke Loas using African deities.
Voodoo practitioners don’t worship through the Catholic Saints.
Many Hoodoo practitioners are often drawn to other spiritual practices or traditions too.
Many who are practitioners of Hoodoo are known as Root Doctors or Root Healers.
For some who practice Hoodoo see it as a form of personal power to either help themselves or to help others.
Hoodoo practitioners help or guide others with their knowledge of herbs, roots, crystals, animal parts and sometimes a range of bodily fluids.
Hoodoo is practiced based on the person’s inclinations, desires and intentions.
With access to the Loas the Hoodoo practitioner can access the knowledge of the God’s and other supernatural beings to help in a wide range of areas in your life – from love, abundance and luck to banishing, protection and wading.
Voodoo is essentially the root from which Hoodoo grew because of the persecution of followers, but for those who are followers of Voodoo it’s more than just a religion, it’s a way of life, a core facet of their daily lives.
Voodoo is very popular in areas like Mississippi and Louisiana, being most notable in New Orleans. Voodoo was brought to the USA via Haiti which was a former French colony.
Hoodoo however was brought by those who were bound into servitude from Africa.
Voodoo is sometimes considered to be purer than Hoodoo, but Hoodoo is actually a denomination of Voodoo – like Catholicism is a denomination of Christianity.
Voodoo influences so many areas of society from music and art to justice and language and from medicine to spirituality.
It reaches far and deep into people’s lives whereas Hoodoo is only a small facet of the truth that’s held in voodoo and tends to focus on the spiritual aspect more than anything else.
Let the Spirits of the Earth, Sun and Moon Guide you.
With Covid the Carnival parades aren’t happening in 2021, but New Orleans residents and organizations have taken matters into their own hands by converting their homes into stationary "floats."
