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Mardi Gras in Mobile
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama[pronounce] is the oldest annual Carnival celebration in America, having begun in 1703,[1][2][3] over 15 years before New Orleans was founded (1718).[3] From Mobile being the first capital of French Louisiana (1702), the festival began as a French Catholic tradition, celebrating until the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday, until midnight on Mardi Gras day (French for "Fat Tuesday" or Shrove Tuesday). However, Mardi Gras in Mobile now has evolved into a mainstream multi-week celebration across the spectrum of cultures in Mobile, becoming school holidays[4] for the final Monday and Tuesday (some include Wednesday),[5] regardless of religious affiliation. Although Mobile has traditions of exclusive societies, with formal masked balls and elegant costumes, the celebration has evolved over the past 3 centuries to become typified by public parades where members of societies, often masked, on floats or horseback [6] [7] toss gifts to the general public, as throws, including plastic beads, doubloon coins,[6] decorated plastic cups, candy,[6] wrapped cakes/snacks,[6] stuffed animals,[7] and small toys,[7] footballs, frisbees, or whistles.[7]
The masked balls or dances, where non-masked men wear white tie and tails (full dress or costume de rigueur) and the women wear full length evening gowns, are oriented to adults, with some mystic societies treating the balls as an extension of the debutante season of their exclusive social circles. Various nightclubs and local bars offer their own particular events.
Beyond the public parades, Mardi Gras in Mobile involves many various mystic societies, some having begun in 1704, or ending with the Civil War, while new societies were formed every century. Some mystic societies are never seen in public parades, but rather hold invitation-only events for their secret members, with private balls beginning in November.
Overview of events
The Mobile Mardi Gras season starts in November[8][9][10] with exclusive parties held by some secret mystic societies, then New Year's Eve balls. It has become closely entwined with the social debutante season for certain families. Other mystic societies begin their events at Twelfth Night (January 6), with parades, balls (some of them masquerade balls), and king cake parties.
During the last two weeks before Mardi Gras, at least one major parade takes place each day in the city.[9] The largest and most elaborate parades take place the last few days of the season. In the final week of Mardi Gras, many events large and small occur throughout Mobile and the surrounding communities (see event schedule[6]).
The parades in Mobile are organized mainly by Carnival krewes or orders. Krewe float riders toss throws to the crowds. The most common throws are strings of colorful plastic beads,[6] doubloons (aluminium or wooden dollar-sized coins usually impressed with a krewe logo),[6] wrapped candy/snacks/MoonPies,[6][7] decorated plastic throw cups, stuffed animals,[7] and other small inexpensive toys.[7] Major krewes follow the same parade schedule and route each year.
To Mobilians, "Mardi Gras" refers to the entire festival season, also known as Carnival. [11] Local schools have multiple "Mardi Gras Holidays" [4](which can include Ash Wednesday),[5] with the final Tuesday called "Fat Tuesday" or "Mardi Gras Day".[6] Mobile's culture has become diverse, and the Mardi Gras season has been extended. The area's traditions draw from all its history, including French, Spanish, British, African, Creole, American, and even Swedish influences.
History
A type of Mardi Gras festival was brought to Mobile by the founding French Catholic settlers of French Louisiana, as the celebration of Mardi Gras was part of preparation for Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. The first record of the holiday being marked in America is on March 3, 1699,[12] at a camp site along the Mississippi River delta. After the construction of Fort Louis de la Mobile (1700–1702), the settlers celebrated Mardi Gras in Mobile in 1703, beginning an annual tradition, only occasionally canceled because of war.[3][6]
Mardi Gras has evolved over centuries in the Mobile area, combining tradition and culture with new ideas. French Mardi Gras arrived in North America with the founding French settlers, the Le Moyne brothers,[3] Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville: in the late 17th century, King Louis XIV sent the pair to defend France's claim on the territory of La Louisiane, which included what are now the U.S. states of Alabama and Louisiana.[13]
The two explorers, coming through Dauphin Island (Alabama), navigated the mouth of the Mississippi River (charted by Cavelier de La Salle, 1682), sailed upstream, and on March 3, 1699, celebrated, naming the spot Pointe du Mardi Gras (French: "Mardi Gras Point")[12] 60 miles downriver from the wilderness that would become New Orleans 20 years later.[3] Meanwhile, between 1700–1702, the 21-year-old Bienville founded the settlement of Mobile (Alabama), as the first capital of French Louisiana, [14] and in 1703, the American Mardi Gras tradition began with French annual celebrations in Mobile.[2][3] [15][16] The feasting and revelry on Mardi Gras in Mobile was called Boeuf Gras (Fatted Ox).[6] The masked ball, Masque de la Mobile, began in 1704,[3] and the first known parade was in 1711,[3] when Mobile's "Boeuf Gras Society" ("fat beef society") paraded on Mardi Gras, with 16 men pushing a cart carrying a large papier-mâché cow's head.[2]
By 1720, Biloxi became the second capital of Louisiana, and also celebrated French customs.[3] Due to fear of tides and hurricanes, in 1723, the capital was moved to the inland port founded 1718[14] and called "Nouvelle-Orléans" (New Orleans).[3] That city also started a Mardi Gras celebration.
In 1763, Mobile came under British control. Its restrictions on free blacks and racial segregation caused many Creoles to leave Mobile and move west towards New Orleans. In 1780, Spain took control of the Mobile area in the aftermath of the American Revolution. The Carnival celebration incorporated the Spanish custom of torch-lit parades[2] on Twelfth Night (January 6, also known as Epiphany.) In 1813, Mobile became a United States city, included in the Mississippi Territory. In 1817 it was part of the Alabama Territory. In the Anglican and Episcopal traditions, the day before Ash Wednesday was celebrated as Shrove Tuesday, marked by consumption of rich foods before the fasting practices of Lent.
About 11 years after Alabama became a state (1819), a group of revelers, led by Michael Krafft, who was likely influenced by his Pennsylvania Swedish traditions of celebrating the New Year, stayed awake all New Year's Eve, started a dawn parade on January 1, 1831, making noise with cowbells, hoes, and rakes.[3] [17] The group became the first parading mystic society (or "krewe"), calling themselves the Cowbellion de Rakin Society, in a parody of French. They had annual parades each New Year's Eve.[2][3] Nearly 125 years after Mobile's first parade of 1711,[3] the new mystic society from Mobile, the Cowbellion de Rakin Society (1830), took their parade into New Orleans, circa 1835.[3] In 1838, people in New Orleans adopted the "European custom of celebrating the last day of the Carnival by a procession of masqued figures through the streets."[13]
In 1843, some men who had been refused membership by the Cowbellions, formed the Mobile "Strikers Independent Society" with their own New Year's parade. However, other men from Mobile formed the New Orleans Cowbellions in 1850,[3] and in 1857, that Cowbellion society, renamed the Mistick Krewe of Comus, held its first parade on Mardi Gras in New Orleans.[13] The Boeuf Gras Society (1711–1861) held their last procession on Shrove Tuesday in 1861, before the American Civil War, and then dissolved.[2][18]
In 1867, after the Civil War, Joe Cain revived the parades in Mobile on Mardi Gras,[1][3] riding in a decorated charcoal wagon, along with six fellow veterans.[2] That event is celebrated annually with Joe Cain Day (since 1966)[1] and a parade on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. The event's founder, artist and historian Julian Lee "Judy" Rayford, portrayed the "Chief" and in 1970 handed the features to the third "Old Slac", fireman J. B. "Red" Foster. Foster prtrayed the "Chief" until passing the features in 1985 to historian, public relations professional and pastor, Bennett Wayne Dean Sr. Dean, as Old Slac IV "hisself", celebrated his 25th year under the feathers on Joe Cain Day in 2010.