THE CHEF FROM HELL

Carnival, the riotous and bawdy festival celebrated across Europe and in the Southern region of the United States, has been in existence almost since the beginning of civilization itself.

Over five thousand years ago, Ovid, a poet of ancient Rome,  wrote verse about a spring festival that was celebrated to ensure greener pastures and the forgiveness of sins.  Greek priests would sacrifice a goat, cut its skin into whips and use them to lash the naked revelers as they danced.

This festival, known as the Lupercalia, evolved throughtout the centuries and spread from Greece to Rome and France, where the festivities became a bit more pleasant, yet still full of lewdness, debauchery and occasional violence.  Many revelers, in order to conceal their true identities while behaving in an uncivilized manner, wore masks.

When Christianity took hold, around the the year 600, the Church was appalled at such displays of lewdness and impiety.  However, the Church knew that it would be impossible to obliterate the annual celebration.  Around this time, Pope Gregory made the dates of the Holy Days of Ash Wednesday and Easter fluctuate with the equinox.  Realizing that since the season of Lent, a time when Christians fast and self denial is practiced, could coincide with this spring festival of madness, he renamed it the Carnivale which literally means "farewell to the flesh."  This ensured that the festival ended on the day before the solemnity of the Lenten season.

The traditions of this festival of public debauchery and costuming were eventually embraced across Europe, and as European settlers journeyed to America, it was only a matter of time before Carnival became part of the American cultural heritage.

On March 3rd, 1699, when the French settlers, led by the explorers Iberville and Bienville, made camp on the banks of the Mississippi River, it was Mardi Gras Day.  The group of settlers held a small celebration at their campsite by the river and aptly named it Mardi Gras Point.  An observance was also held in Mobile, Alabama in 1703.  The French settlers in Alabama carried on the traditions from their homeland as did those who settled in Louisiana.  The city of New Orleans was founded in 1718 and private Carnival celebrations were staged.

By 1743, the first Carnival Balls were held throughout the season.  When the Spanish gained control of Louisiana, they banned all festivities of the Carnival Season.  In 1823, not long after The Louisiana Purchase had made Louisiana a possession of the United States, the celebration of the Carnival Season was reinstated.

In 1830, in Alabama, a one-eyed man named Michael Krafft and his friends were celebrating Carnival in a restaurant in downtown Mobile.  It was the last day of the Carnival Season.  Following their dinner party, the tipsy celebrants "borrowed" farming equipment and coal wagons from a nearby business, quickly devised some makeshift costumes and began parading through the streets.  This was the first Mardi Gras Parade ever held on American soil.

By 1837, unofficial parades were held in the streets of various southern cities.  By 1872, the Krewe of Rex held their first official parade.  The parade was in honor of the visiting Grand Duke Alexis of Russia.  It is here that the official colors of Carnival were instituted.  The Krewe of Rex chose the royal colors of the Romanoff family of Russia as their backdrop.  This choice of colors continues to be used to this day.  The colors are purple which stands for justice, gold for power and green for faith.  The Krewe of Rex was also the first Krewe to throw trinkets to the crowd during parades.  This event also marked the premiere of the official Mardi Gras son, "If Ever I Cease To Love."

During the 1800's and 1900's, many Carnival Krewes came into existence; along with walking clubs and Social Aid and Pleasure clubs.  These clubs existed for the purpose of parading, having fun and helping their communities through various charity efforts.  In their earliest days, Krewes were dignified and very serious about their procedures, parades and the themes behind their parades.  Majestic and historical themes were commonplace as the Krewes treated their subject matter with elegance to their celebrations.  One of the first of these types of Krewes was the Zulu Krewe.  Throughout the years, however, the newer Krewes took more of a tongue-in-cheek approach to all things Carnival.

In the early 1900's, the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure club made its mark on Carnival.  Zulu was comprised entirely of working class black Americans.  In their parade, they mocked the snobbishness of Krewes like Rex and Comus.  In fact, their parade float was a comical caricature of the Krewe of Rex.  Instead of masking in the royal colors of Rex, the members of Zulu wore blackface.  The Zulu King wore a crown made out of an old can of lard as opposed to the bejeweled crown of King Rex.  The Zulu Queens were all men dressed in drag and the royalty of Zulu sported names like the "Big Shot of Africa."  Zulu was also the first Krewe to connect the marching band street jazz sounds of the black neighborhoods to the Carnival Season.

In 1991, the New Orleans city council proposed an ordinance that would desegregate all Krewes.  The battle that ensued raged over the course of the following year.  Krewes such as Comus, Momus and Proteus declined to roll out their floats during Mardi Gras.  Eventually, a compromise was worked out when legislation dictating that no Krewe could practice discrimination by gender was entered into law.

In the last decade, there have been over sixty official Carnival Krewes parading in the greater New Orleans area; unofficial Krewes have numbered in the hundreds.  Since the impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans and its surrounding areas in 2005, Mardi Gras has lost some of its intensity.  However, the celebration of Carnival has continued each year since that fatal storm and one can safely assume that it always will.

"Joy of heart, good cheer and merriment are wine drunk freely at the proper time."   The Bible, Sirach 31:27

(Special Thanks to my wife, Sweet Loretta, for her research assistance with this post!)