Mardi Gras

[Jeff Wrangler]

Coming up Tuesday!

(I scrolled through the whole Holiday thread and couldn't notice a Mardi Gras topic.)

For some reason, I find the translation "Fat Tuesday" distasteful.   

Of course, in my ancestral culture, the day is known as Fastnacht Day. (We have something somewhere about fastnachts, but I haven't taken the time to hunt for it.)

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laissez_les_bons_temps_rouler

[serious crayons]

I try to make a nod of some type to Mardi Gras every year to celebrate my seven years in NOLA and my friends who still live there.

[Penthesilea]

Coming up Tuesday!


Of course, in my ancestral culture, the day is known as Fastnacht Day.

In the country of your ancestors Fastnacht/Fasching is six days long, starting with

Thursday, wich is also called Altweiberfastnacht or Schmutziger Donnerstag (Old Women's Fastnacht or Dirty Thursday)

followed by Faschingsfreitag, Faschingssamstag and Faschingssonntag (Fastnacht-Friday, -Saturday and -Sunday)

then comes Rosenmontag (Rose-Monday)

end it ends with Faschingsdienstag (Fastnacht-Tuesday).

The two main Fasching days are the Monday and Tuesday however.



On Altweiberfastnacht/Dirty Thursday, women march into town halls and cut off ties from the men. So you better wear an old or ugly tie on this day.
On Fastnacht-Tuesday our employer gives us half a free day and we have to take the other half from our vacation days or deduct it from our overtime, since everything is closed.

[serious crayons]

In New Orleans, Mardi Gras parades start at least two weeks before the actual day. They get bigger as the day approaches. On Mardi Gras itself, there are a handful of traditional events, including parades and the "Mardi Gras Indians," who are Black men (maybe some women these days?) who dress up in really elaborate, colorful faux Native American costumes with feathered headdresses and the like and then go around the city dancing.

[Front-Ranger]

Interesting mixup!

[Jeff Wrangler]

In the country of your ancestors Fastnacht/Fasching is six days long, starting with

Thursday, wich is also called Altweiberfastnacht or Schmutziger Donnerstag (Old Women's Fastnacht or Dirty Thursday)

followed by Faschingsfreitag, Faschingssamstag and Faschingssonntag (Fastnacht-Friday, -Saturday and -Sunday)

then comes Rosenmontag (Rose-Monday)

end it ends with Faschingsdienstag (Fastnacht-Tuesday).

The two main Fasching days are the Monday and Tuesday however.



On Altweiberfastnacht/Dirty Thursday, women march into town halls and cut off ties from the men. So you better wear an old or ugly tie on this day.
On Fastnacht-Tuesday our employer gives us half a free day and we have to take the other half from our vacation days or deduct it from our overtime, since everything is closed.

Of course I was thinking more of my immediate ancestors and my ancestral culture as Pennsylvania German, since my family has been here since 1748. We have fastnachts only on Shrove Tuesday.

Some of us will have to make do with ordinary doughnuts.

[Penthesilea]

In New Orleans, Mardi Gras parades start at least two weeks before the actual day. They get bigger as the day approaches. On Mardi Gras itself, there are a handful of traditional events, including parades and the "Mardi Gras Indians," who are Black men (maybe some women these days?) who dress up in really elaborate, colorful faux Native American costumes with feathered headdresses and the like and then go around the city dancing.

I've never heard of this. Where's the PC police, claiming cultural appropriation?
(Just to be clear: I don't mind either way; and Fasching is about flouting the rules).

[serious crayons]

I've never heard of this. Where's the PC police, claiming cultural appropriation?
(Just to be clear: I don't mind either way; and Fasching is about flouting the rules).

Because it's been going on so long, and because it's a respectful tribute by one oppressed group to another, I don't think anybody would get too riled up about it.

What some people DO get riled up about is another parade, Zulu, a 100+ year old Black-led parade, in which all the participants -- including Black people -- wear exaggerated blackface makeup. For years the riders in the parade were all Black but at some point they started inviting white people and it was considered a big honor. The white people are also required -- by the all or largely Black group that runs the parade -- to wear blackface. Again, also a decades-old tradition that everyone was pretty used to until lately, maybe the last 5 years or so. Now when photos of white people in blackface in the parade pop up, I've heard of at least a couple getting in trouble or fired. My ex-husband did it one year and I have a photo of him that I jokingly hold as a blackmail threat. He had a blast doing it, though.

The other interesting thing about Zulu is that while riders in all parades throw things into the crowd -- 95 percent are colorful plastic beads or plastic cups -- in Zulu they also throw coconuts. So all participants have to buy a bunch of coconuts and paint faces on them, then hurl them into the crowd.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/16/us/zulu-new-orleans-blackface/index.html




 

[Jeff Wrangler]

Blackface got our (Philadelphia) New Year's Day Mummers in trouble. Time out of mind it was traditional for them to march in the New Year's Day parade in blackface. Gotta be at least two decades or more now that the city finally banned blackface. A couple of years ago, pre-Covid, one group wore blackface, and they were sanctioned for it. I believe they were banned from participating in the parade, but I don't remember for how long.

[serious crayons]

Well I should say that the CNN article says they don't consider it "blackface" in the racist sense, especially since it's a Black organization that requires it. Looks like a couple of white mayors rode without wearing it, but I believe they were exceptions.