by Jarred James Breaux

Created on: March 24, 2008

Many associate Mardi Gras as a time of binge drinking and titty flashing in New Orleans. However, for the majority of the world, that cannot be further from the truth. Mardi Gras is often popularized as the elite of society on floats in grand parades throwing doubloons and beads, but that is now how Mardi Gras originated.

In ancient Rome, they celebrated the festival of Lupercalia around February 15th. Lupercalia was a festival for the pastoral god Lupercus who is associated with Faunus. At this festival, people would feast for several days and "indulge in voluntary madness." They would wear clothing similar to that of the rich aristocrats and parade through the streets giving themselves to Bacchus and Venus. Their clothing was often purple, the color of kings, which was very expensive since the dye was made in Phoenicia (which is Greek for "land of the purple people").

In another holiday just before Lupercalia, people gave praise to the god Saturn. Followers of Saturn decorated their homes with all types of greenery. Ornaments with sun faces, stars, and the faces of Janus would be placed on outside plants.

When Europe became primarily Christian, the Pope in Rome decided to embrace the Lupercalia festival as Carnival. Carnival would be a time of indulgence before the Lent season, a time of fasting. The Carnival season begins on epiphany, the twelfth night after Jesus' birth, January 6th. They combined the rituals of the two pagan festivals eventually. Carnival continued as a time for the poor to make fun of the rich by mimicking and mocking their behavior.

By the Colonial Era, Carnival was widely celebrated in Paris, France, mainly on the two days before Ash Wednesday. Lundi Gras (Fat Monday) and Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) was a time of huge parades of commoners mimicking the rich and redistributing the wealth of the country. Commoners would steal food and drink from the rich and feast in front of them. The rich were powerless to do anything as this had become tradition.

Around that time, as the French were exploring the Americas, Mardi Gras was brought to Mobile, Alabama first. Mobile, Alabama was the first settlement in the Louisiana Territory by the French. In 1719, the French would eventually established New Orleans where Mardi Gras would be introduced to the American population.

In New Orleans, Mardi Gras would flourish and mix with different cultures. The same year New Orleans was founded was the same year that slave trade started to flourish. Mardi Gras embraced

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