Explanation of carnival season

The date of Mardi Gras is determined by the Christian calendar. Mardi Gras is the day before Ash Wednesday, when Lent, the period of sacrifice that precedes Easter, begins. In New Orleans the term Carnival refers to the season of balls and parades from January 6 (Epiphany, which commemorates the coming of the Magi) to Mardi Gras.

Future Dates of Mardi Gras

1999 - February 16 2000 - March 7 2001 - February 27 2002 - February 12 2003 - March 4 2004 - February 24 2005 - February 8 2006 - February 28 2007 - February 20

2008 - February 5 2009 - February 24 2010 - February 16 2011 - March 8 2012 - February 21 2013 - February 12 2014 - March 4 2015 - February 17 2016 - February 9

Colors of Mardi Gras

	The Three Colors of Mardi Gras: Purple, Green and Gold [...]
	© Syndey Byrd 1998

In New Orleans, and sometimes in other parts of Louisiana, the colors purple, green, and gold signify Mardi Gras. The Rex organization introduced these quasi-official colors in its inaugural parade in New Orleans in 1872. No particular meaning was attached to the colors at that time, but in 1892, Rex's parade on "Symbolism of Colors" revealed that purple represented justice; green, faith; and gold, power.

	South Rampart Street Parade: Lawson-Haggart Jazz Band
Realaudio	©  1998 GHB Jazz Foundation

Development of Carnival Societies and the Krewe System

In New Orleans, what began as fairly simple masquerade balls in the late eighteenth century evolved into a complex set of celebrations by the late nineteenth century.

During the antebellum period, public masquerade balls, intimate private parties, and loosely organized street processions made up the carnival season.
In a society of competing interests-slaves, free people of color, slaveholders, and Irish and German immigrants-even carnival became an arena for conflict. By the 1850s, disorder ruled: boys and young men threw flour and mud on masqueraders and observers. Some called for Mardi Gras' abolition; what had been a day of play had become a symbol of anarchy.

Mystick Krewe of Comus establishes the krewe system

	Newspaper Illustration - Comus, May 8, 1858
	© LSM

Most New Orleans Carnival parades and balls are sponsored by structured entities known as krewes. The nineteenth-century krewes clung to secrecy, adding to their mystique by refusing to reveal members' identities. Originally white men's organizations, there are now krewes for African Americans, women, and children; some krewes contain both men and women and some have a mixed ethnic and racial membership.

	Comus Invitation, 1884
	© LSM

Kings or queens preside over parades and balls, but the real power in krewes resides in an officer known as the captain, who supervises all events. In some cases, captains may serve for a specified term; in others, he or she rules until retirement.
With Mardi Gras on the verge of extinction, the Mistick Krewe of Comus emerged to transform the endangered holiday in 1857.

	Comus headpiece, late 19th century
	© LSM

Comus organized under the veil of strictest secrecy, contributing to mystery and surprise that Carnival organizers have vied to achieve ever since. Cryptic advertisements in New Orleans papers, headed only "MKC," advised members of a rendezvous. A secret, all-male membership was established, and the krewe has never revealed the identity of the honoree personifying "Comus" in any of its parades and balls. Adherents formed the Pickwick Club, in which one could acknowledge membership, as a front for the Mistick Krewe.

	Lighting Flambeau, Momus Parade 1992
	© Syndey Byrd 1998

The gas lanterns of New Orleans streets were insufficient for the theatrical aspirations of the Mistick Krewe of Comus, which presented the first nighttime parade in New Orleans in 1857. The krewe adopted the solution used in Mobile, where the Cowbellion de Rakin Society had been parading by torchlight since the 1830s. These torches, called flambeaux, were simple candle-lit paper lanterns carried with poles. Since that first Comus parade, African-American men have carried the flambeaux; today, some women also march with them.

Rex : Pro Bono Publico

With a motto of "Pro Bono Publico" ("for the public good"), Rex was the third of the major Carnival organizations after Comus and the Twelfth Night Revelers, who ushered in the Carnival season on January 6. Rex successfully billed its monarchs as the king and queen of Carnival and quickly established its daytime parade as the main act of Mardi Gras.

	King's Robe, 1881 and Helmut, 1881
	© LSM

Rex appeared in 1872 amid a flurry of "royal edicts," ordering businesses and government offices to close by 1 p.m. on Mardi Gras. The procession which contained no floats appeared by mid-afternoon. Dressed as Richard III, King Lewis J. Salomon made his way through the crowds on horseback. Following Rex, according to the Daily Picayune, were "three of four hundred footmen, costumed as kings and peasants, devils and saints, Indians and negroes, women of high and low degree, clowns and harlequins, birds, beasts and fishes."

Zulu

	Zulu arriving by tug at New Basin Canal
	© LSM

The Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, the first African-American parade organization in New Orleans, emerged in 1909. Inspired by a musical comedy they had seen at the Pythian Temple, the members took their cue from a scene that featured an African king; the performers were African Americans in blackface, a popular entertainment genre on the southern black circuit at the time. From the beginning, Zulu deliberately parodied white carnival monarchy. In tattered rags, William Story, the first Zulu king, effected the manner of a hobo, in keeping with the group's original name, the Tramps. The customary royal symbols, the crown and the scepter, were made from a lard can and a banana stalk.

		Zulu on Canal Street
		© Syndey Byrd 1998

In 1914 and for some years afterward, Zulu made the satire of white carnival explicit by directly following the Rex parade; in 1928 the African-American Louisiana Weekly's headline announced, "Zulu Burlesque on Rex to be Most Elaborate Ever." Just as Rex, the white king of carnival, had arrived by boat at the foot of Canal Street, Zulu arrived by boat on the New Basin Canal. Zulu ridiculed white pomposity by using white notions of black savagery; in short, they reclaimed black stereotypes. In their second procession Zulu's king appeared in blackface, a tradition still maintained. By 1923 Zulu members assumed their standard costume of grass skirts. The club also dispensed coconuts as souvenirs.

Floats

	Float Drawing, Comus, 1894
	© LSM

Floatbuilding has evolved over the years, as has the means of locomotion. From the 1880s until 1950, New Orleans krewes rented mules from the city's sanitation department to pull the floats. For the parades, the animals were in effect costumed-draped with a covering with openings for the mouth, eyes, and ears. Robed men-typically African American-walked alongside the mules, guiding them along the route. When the city bought trucks to replace the mules, the krewes were forced to switch to tractors.

	Rex Parade, Mardi Gras day(photo by Syndey Byrd) and Float [...]
	© Syndey Byrd 1998

Many of the early floats and figures were papier-mâché, imported from Paris, as were most masks and other carnival accoutrements. When Parisian sculptor Georges Soulié, whose family had built and designed Mardi Gras elements in France, came to New Orleans in the early 1870s, he began a domestic parade industry.

	Endynmion Parade and Iris parade (women's krewe)
	© Syndey Byrd 1998

While some krewes, notably Rex, still use papier-mâché, many floats today are constructed of fiberglass and other modern materials. One of the most impressive float spectacles is the Leviathan in the Krewe of Orpheus parade. Nearly 54,000 fiber-optic lights give life to the 125-foot sea monster, produced by second-generation floatbuilder Barry Kern. The float first appeared in 1998.

	Crowds on Canal Street
	© LSM