Enjoying the Place, Party and People in Your Mardi Gras Dress Costume

Despite the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina, the city of New Orleans continued its Mardi Gras celebrations albeit on a scaled-back way. Still, scaled back or not, the Mardi Gras in New Orleans remains to be the best ever party in the United States, and probably in the world, where people and place become as one.

Rhetoric aside, the Mardi Gras is the time for elaborate Mardi masks and your most imaginative Mardi Gras costumes, eating and drinking to excess, flirting and flashing, masquerading and dancing. Indeed, it is a Fat Tuesday in many ways.

However, did you know that the Mardi Gras has religious roots in Roman Catholic traditions? Yes, it was part of the preparations for the Christian season of Lent that invariably starts after the Twelfth Night. Keep in mind that Lent is a time for quiet reflection and so the raucous vibrancy of the Mardi Gras is in stark contrast, which is very characteristic of the people of New Orleans.

It must be emphasized that people celebrating the Mardi Gras do not necessarily wear their costumes all throughout the Carnival season. Instead, the Mardi Gras costume is actually reserved for the day itself that’s, of course, falls on a Tuesday. Mardi Gras, after all, means Fat Tuesday in the French language.

The Carnival celebrations are more focused two weeks prior to the Mardi Gras and on the day itself. Such is the scope of the Carnival that there will be more than two full-fledged parades in a day not only in the city premises but in the surrounding communities as well. The intensity builds up the anticipation amongst the revelers during the last five days of the Carnival season when increasingly elaborate parades and costumes spill out into the streets of the city.

And speaking of costumes, many a Mardi Gras costume dress sport the official colors of the Carnival season – purple for justice, gold for power, and green for faith. Thus, if you are to make or purchase your costume, do try to include one or all of these colors to reflect the spirit of the Carnival.

As for masks, it must be emphasized that these face coverings are only allowed during the Mardi Gras itself. Exceptions to the rule also apply such as taking off your masks when you are entering stores and banks. Other than these legal restrictions, you can be as creative, as crazy and as complex with your mask as you want.

During the Mardi grand parade, you can witness the spectacle of seeing so many Mardi Gras dresses and costumes parading the streets of New Orleans, with many on the immodest side. And don’t forget that flashing of breasts is allowed during the celebrations, the most obvious aim of which is to collect as many multicolored beads as possible.

The end of the Mardi season and, hence, the start of saying goodbye to your Mardi Gras dress is during the Meeting of the Courts between the Mardi King and Queen of Carnival and the King and Queen of the Mistick Krewe of Comus. On the stroke of midnight, New Orleans police on horseback tell the revelers that Fat Tuesday is over and Ash Wednesday is beginning. Till next year, then!

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