Celebrating Mardi Gras in New Orleans | National Geographic
Summary
TLDRLe Mardi Gras de La Nouvelle-Orléans est une célébration précédant le careme chrétien. Des semaines et mois avant, la ville se prépare, avec des boulangers produisant jusqu'à 50 cakes royaux par jour et des couturiers confectionnant des costumes somptueux pour les fêtes et les parades. Le Mardi Gras est une tradition centenaire, avec des clubs appelés "crews" organisant des bals et des parades. Les float dens, où sont construits les chars, sont une source d'emploi local. La musique est également un élément essentiel de la fête, influençant profondément les musiciens locaux.
Keywords
💡Mardi Gras
💡New Orleans
💡King Cakes
💡Costumes
💡Crew System
💡Mascarade
💡Floats
💡Music
💡Tradition
💡Community
💡Carnival Season
Transcripts
[Music]
new orleans mardi gras is more than just
a celebration before the christian
season of lent begins
in this city preparations for the big
day begin
weeks and even months in advance
early mornings are nothing new for
bakers but the predawn workload grows
during carnival season
from january 6 through fat tuesday new
orleans cake cafe and
bakery is a beehive of activity where
they make as many as
50 king cakes a day here they make
non-traditional
goat cheese and apple stuffed cakes
there's very
old school king cakes in new orleans
they've been at it for 50 60 100 years
some of them
and they have a loyal following the old
school king cake has a tiny baby or
other trinket baked inside
and whoever gets the trinket has
obligations such as buy
next year's king cake here the baby goes
on the outside
the king cake is a traditional new
orleans mardi gras pastry
you'll find pastries like this all over
the country and all over the world that
they're only served for a certain season
during the year
[Music]
in another part of town sally hedrick
and her son are making 150 or more
ornate costumes these are for the social
organizations throwing the lavish balls
and parades
some may go for more than three thousand
dollars
it's as rewarding to see the women in
these costumes gleam
but it's more rewarding to see the men
because a man doesn't get to dress up
in beautiful clothes he's usually in a
tuxedo
hedrick works on costumes year-round
refurbishing ones that took a bit of a
beating during last year's mardi gras
celebrations
and creating new works
a look back at years past the louisiana
state museum lets visitors see more than
a century and a half of new orleans
mardi gras traditions
the oldest item in the carnival
collection is something that we were
very fortunate to acquire
just a couple of years ago it's a ball
invitation that dates to the 1850s
the carnival exhibit at the museum on
jackson square only shows the tip of the
iceberg
however the museum's warehouse
periodically offers tours
where visitors can see the thousands of
costumes and other items
the way that we celebrate mardi gras now
and for the last 150 years revolves
around what we call the crew system
there are all these clubs that exist
that are called mardi gras crews
for the dozens of crews spelled with a k
lavish balls highlight mardi gras the
knights of sparta crew was founded in
1951
for the last 30 years they paraded in
the city
and currently host a masquerade ball and
parade that falls on the next to the
last weekend of carnival season
the cruise captain does not publicly
reveal his identity
he says it isn't about secrecy i wear
the mask however because it is the
tradition of carnival
to mask to hide one's identity
because when i represent my
carnival crew the knights of sparta i am
simply the captain
one should not know my name or who i
am belonging to or leading a crew
takes a big commitment it is very costly
to the members of the organization
paying dues buying the trinkets the
throws as we call them to throw off the
floats
ball gowns for the ladies tickets to
different functions and we do it because
of a sense of
tradition
[Music]
as fat tuesday approaches warehouses
throughout the city come to life
float dens as they are called house the
floats that can cost hundreds of
thousands of dollars to construct
it can take a month or more to build and
decorate the elaborate floats
some of which date back to the early
1900s
it's part of the economy here too it
puts a lot of people to work i mean you
know to make a float like this you need
carpenters
you you need artists you need welders
you need tire people you need mechanics
that's a lot involved
[Music]
and a final vital ingredient for mardi
gras is the music
grammy-winning artist ervin mayfield
from television you see these parades go
by people throwing beads
but what you really don't see is that
mardi gras lives out in people's houses
it lives out on the streets it lives out
in the halls and the parties and
receptions
and it's not a thing over one day
so i would say in terms of music you
know it's very hard to have mardi gras
without the music
and he says any musician growing up in
new orleans is shaped by mardi gras
you're a leg on a table that helps the
table stand up the music the food
the people for a young musician you
wouldn't start playing music because of
mardi gras necessarily but if you are a
musician you will be involved in mardi
gras
a certain way
[Music]
most new orleans natives say anyone
hoping to understand mardi gras
needs to come back often and stay a
while not just for one day
[Music]
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