Festivities - Krewes & King Cake
Enjoy Mardi Gras celebration party supplies and decor from Shindigz! They have paper goods, masks, beads, balloons, signs, banners, and more.
Enjoy Mardi Gras celebration party supplies and decor from Shindigz! They have paper goods, masks, beads, balloons, signs, banners, and more.
The Krewes:
Dozens of Carnival Parades fill the schedule between January 6 (Twelfth Night, also known as the Feast of the Epiphany, which marks the end of the Christmas Season) and Ash Wednesday...particularly during the two-and-a-half weeks prior to Mardi Gras. Two official celebrations mark the beginning of Carnival in New Orleans: the Bal Masque of the Twelfth Night Revelers and the ride of the Phunny Phorty Phellows along St. Charles Avenue.
However, the four-day Carnival weekend is when parading reaches its crescendo. Among those held during that weekend are two "super-parades," the first being the Endymion Parade on Saturday and the second being the Bacchus Parade on Sunday. Carnival Day itself (Tuesday, when the entire City of New Orleans takes the day off) is more of a family celebration with many of the local high school bands marching in the Parades. The standard and traditional route for night parades begins at Napoleon Avenue, proceeds down St. Charles Avenue to Canal Street and ends at the Ernest Morial Convention Center.
In addition to the Krewe members, marching or walking clubs feature prominently as participants in the Parades, the Jefferson City Buzzards being considered the oldest of the marching clubs, having been founded in 1890. Truck Parades are also a feature of the celebrations on Mardi Gras Day, their flatbeds decorated by families and friends. Many spectators don flamboyant costumes or bizarre make-up for the festivities.
Officially, Carnival comes to an end promptly at midnight on "Fat Tuesday," when the police begin to clean the streets of the French Quarter, and officially closes with the meeting of the Courts of Rex and Comus at the Ball of the Mystick Krewe of Comus.
Krewes are the masking and parading clubs (or social organizations) for which New Orleans is both famous and infamous. Most Krewes developed from private social clubs that have restrictive membership policies. Today, in order to obtain a Parade Permit, all Orleans Parish Clubs must sign Affidavits agreeing not to discrimate in terms of membership, but many of the more established Krewes continue to allow membership by "invitation only."
According to legend, the word "Krewe" came from the old English spelling for "crew" and the custom of Krewes taking their names from mythological characters dates back to at least 1857. The ranking structure of a Mardi Gras Krewe is a parody of royalty: King, Queen, Dukes, Knights and Captains...or some variation on that theme.
The King Cake:
The King Cake is a brioche-style cake traditionally made throughout the State of Louisiana during the weeks prior to Mardi Gras. Usually oval in shape, the King Cake is a bakery delicacy made from a rich Danish dough (which is a sweetened yeast bread...a cross between a coffee cake and a French pastry) and covered with a poured sugar topping decorated in the traditional Mardi Gras-colored sugars of purple (symbolizing Justice), green (symbolizing Faith) and gold (symbolizing Power).
This colorful topping is representative of a jeweled crown in honor of the Three Wise Men who visited the Christ Child on Epiphany (a word derived from the Greek meaning "to show"). Epiphany, also known as Twelfth Night (i.e., January 6) is when the Carnival Season officially begins.
The King Cake tradition is believed to have begun with French settlers around 1870, who were themselves continuing a custom which dated back to Twelfth Century France, when a similar cake was used to celebrate the coming of the Magi twelve days after Christmas bearing gifts for the Christ Child.
This celebration was also once known as King's Day. As a symbol of this Holy Day, a tiny plastic baby (symbolic of the baby Jesus) is placed inside each King Cake but in times gone past, the hidden items were usually coins, beans, pecans or peas.
Today, the cakes are baked in many shapes but originally, they were round to portray the circular route take by the Magi in order to confuse King Herod, whose army was attempting to follow the Wise Men so that the Christ Child could be killed.
The origin of the modern King Cake can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when popular devotion during Christmas turned to the Three Wise Men. In 1871, the tradition of choosing the Queen of Mardi Gras was determined by who drew the prize within the cake. Today, such a find is still deemed to be a sign of good luck and it customary for the person who discovers the hidden plastic baby to host the next King Cake Party.
(NEXT PAGE - St. Patrick's Day)
Dozens of Carnival Parades fill the schedule between January 6 (Twelfth Night, also known as the Feast of the Epiphany, which marks the end of the Christmas Season) and Ash Wednesday...particularly during the two-and-a-half weeks prior to Mardi Gras. Two official celebrations mark the beginning of Carnival in New Orleans: the Bal Masque of the Twelfth Night Revelers and the ride of the Phunny Phorty Phellows along St. Charles Avenue.
However, the four-day Carnival weekend is when parading reaches its crescendo. Among those held during that weekend are two "super-parades," the first being the Endymion Parade on Saturday and the second being the Bacchus Parade on Sunday. Carnival Day itself (Tuesday, when the entire City of New Orleans takes the day off) is more of a family celebration with many of the local high school bands marching in the Parades. The standard and traditional route for night parades begins at Napoleon Avenue, proceeds down St. Charles Avenue to Canal Street and ends at the Ernest Morial Convention Center.
In addition to the Krewe members, marching or walking clubs feature prominently as participants in the Parades, the Jefferson City Buzzards being considered the oldest of the marching clubs, having been founded in 1890. Truck Parades are also a feature of the celebrations on Mardi Gras Day, their flatbeds decorated by families and friends. Many spectators don flamboyant costumes or bizarre make-up for the festivities.
Officially, Carnival comes to an end promptly at midnight on "Fat Tuesday," when the police begin to clean the streets of the French Quarter, and officially closes with the meeting of the Courts of Rex and Comus at the Ball of the Mystick Krewe of Comus.
Krewes are the masking and parading clubs (or social organizations) for which New Orleans is both famous and infamous. Most Krewes developed from private social clubs that have restrictive membership policies. Today, in order to obtain a Parade Permit, all Orleans Parish Clubs must sign Affidavits agreeing not to discrimate in terms of membership, but many of the more established Krewes continue to allow membership by "invitation only."
According to legend, the word "Krewe" came from the old English spelling for "crew" and the custom of Krewes taking their names from mythological characters dates back to at least 1857. The ranking structure of a Mardi Gras Krewe is a parody of royalty: King, Queen, Dukes, Knights and Captains...or some variation on that theme.
The King Cake:
The King Cake is a brioche-style cake traditionally made throughout the State of Louisiana during the weeks prior to Mardi Gras. Usually oval in shape, the King Cake is a bakery delicacy made from a rich Danish dough (which is a sweetened yeast bread...a cross between a coffee cake and a French pastry) and covered with a poured sugar topping decorated in the traditional Mardi Gras-colored sugars of purple (symbolizing Justice), green (symbolizing Faith) and gold (symbolizing Power).
This colorful topping is representative of a jeweled crown in honor of the Three Wise Men who visited the Christ Child on Epiphany (a word derived from the Greek meaning "to show"). Epiphany, also known as Twelfth Night (i.e., January 6) is when the Carnival Season officially begins.
The King Cake tradition is believed to have begun with French settlers around 1870, who were themselves continuing a custom which dated back to Twelfth Century France, when a similar cake was used to celebrate the coming of the Magi twelve days after Christmas bearing gifts for the Christ Child.
This celebration was also once known as King's Day. As a symbol of this Holy Day, a tiny plastic baby (symbolic of the baby Jesus) is placed inside each King Cake but in times gone past, the hidden items were usually coins, beans, pecans or peas.
Today, the cakes are baked in many shapes but originally, they were round to portray the circular route take by the Magi in order to confuse King Herod, whose army was attempting to follow the Wise Men so that the Christ Child could be killed.
The origin of the modern King Cake can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when popular devotion during Christmas turned to the Three Wise Men. In 1871, the tradition of choosing the Queen of Mardi Gras was determined by who drew the prize within the cake. Today, such a find is still deemed to be a sign of good luck and it customary for the person who discovers the hidden plastic baby to host the next King Cake Party.
(NEXT PAGE - St. Patrick's Day)
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