Mardi Gras is synonymous with New Orleans, but this pre-Lenten celebration has origins from countries all over the world, including Italy, Spain, Brazil and France.Each country contributed a unique tradition that culminated in the celebration we now know as Mardi Gras.
Italy is officially a Roman Catholic nation where tradition is taken very seriously, especially during the Lenten season.
But before the weeks of spiritual reflection begin, there is a season of decadent frivolity called Carnevale. It's similar to the celebration in Rio de Janeiro called Carnaval and that of New Orleans called Mardi Gras.
A time-honored festival that is celebrated in countless squares and streets in Italy, animated with costumes, parades, floats and bonfires, it finds its roots in ancient Latin and Greek pagan rituals.
Examples include the Roman Saturnalia and Dionysian cults of ancient Greece, in which the changing of seasons from winter to spring was celebrated with banquets, bacchanals and wild orgies.
The word Carnevale comes from the Latin for meat (carne) and "farewell" (vale), because during Lent, Catholics were commanded to bid farewell to lots of fun things like meat and sex.
In a way it was helpful, because it diminished the likelihood of newborns having to endure the bitterly cold winter some nine months hence. It also gave men a legitimate excuse to go fishing.
Carnevale is the last chance to have some fun before the "L" word (Lent) begins.
Unequivocally one of the most important and most famous Carnevale celebrations is the one held in Venice, known the world over. The array of elaborate masks of merrymakers and the mists arising from the lagoon of this romantic city is irresistible to the exuberant celebrants and waves of camera-laden tourists who flock to party throughout the city's maze of canals.
Caricatures, satirical representations of the elite and powerful, all perched on stunning floats, are featured at the historical Carnevale in Viareggio, which has been held in the seaside Tuscan town since the late 1800s. Every year, its villagers produce hysterically funny - and often tawdry - floats, some of which require a full 12 months of hard work to build and are complex, animated, papier-monstructions which can weigh several tons.
Were Viareggio in America, we'd see floats about Mark Foley, Dick Cheney's hunting trip and certainly something shocking and irreverent about Anna Nicole Smith.
The beautiful city of San Remo is synonymous with flowers, which bloom year-round. Blessed with a Mediterranean climate like southern California, the city holds its own version of the Rose Parade during Carnevale. The sweet perfume of carnations permeates the entire city as giant carriages carrying millions of flowers grace cobblestone streets.
Alfred Nobel lived in San Remo during the last years of his life where he got the inspiration for his world-famous Prizes. The Swedish scientist found peace of mind in this beautiful Riviera after reading his own (premature) obituary erroneously published in a French newspaper eight years before his death.
That was long before pre-demise obituaries at MyObitz.com became vogue. The famous inventor of dynamite blew up when he read the nasty remarks which dubbed him "The Merchant of Death." ? He decided to rewrite history while he still had the chance. The generous beauty of San Remo inspired his largesse of 31 million Swedish crowns bestowed upon a foundation, which honored peacemakers and scientific discoveries.
Taken by San Remo's beauty, Tsaress Maria Alexandrovna started the fashion of Russian aristocracy spending their winters in the sunnier climes of the Italian Riviera to avoid enduring arctic winters in St. Petersburg. Once, in 1872, Russian Grand Duke Alexis Romanoff visited New Orleans during Mardi Gras.
A group of businessmen organized the Krewe of Rex to hold a parade in His Majesty's honor and named a king and queen for the day, a tradition that continues today. The Brazilian celebration is called Carnaval. Portuguese immigrants first celebrated Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro in the early 1800s with an interesting game called entrudo, during which poor people sprayed each other with mud and raw sewage, while the elite used perfume sprays. (There was no middle class, which is good, because dung and perfume don't mix well.)
The denizens of Rio held their first masked ball in 1840 and their first street parades a few years later. These celebrations evolved into a vast spectacle of lavish floats featuring stacks of girls gone wild. There's no place for party-poopers in Rio these days. Scantily-costumed dancers shake it for hours in the 90-degree-plus summertime heat where it's too tempting to throw off all unnecessary clothing. If it appears the Carnaval Emperor's new clothes are missing, you're probably right.
The Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago boasts one of the world's grandest Carnival celebrations, dating back to the landing of French growers in the late 1700s.
Today, the Carnival festivity begins just after Christmas and reaches its climax on Carnival Tuesday. The celebrations feature an endless supply of calypso music, where Trinidad's distinctive steel bands drum up excitement day and night.
The Caribbean island of St. Martin likes Carnival so much, they hold it twice. The first, on the French side, takes place prior to Lent, keeping the tradition of the French Creole Mas, while the second is celebrated on the Dutch side over a period of 17 days and nights, with its grand parade scheduled to coincide with the birthday of Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands, Beatrix.
The finale for Carnival on St. Martin is the burning of King Momo, a straw figure who is the anthropomorphistic spirit of Carnival.
Legend states that by burning King Momo, the villagers' sins and bad luck are burned away, leaving the island pure and filled with hope for great things to come.
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