The History of Mardi Gras and Carnival

American Catholic History

Noelle & Tom Crowe

History, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Education

5 • 724 Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mardi Gras, French for Fat Tuesday, is the day before Ash Wednesday. Fat Tuesday is the final day of the season known as Carnival in many French-based cities and lands all around the world. Carnival comes from the French from "goodbye, meat!" Carnival season begins on Epiphany, January 6, and goes to Lent. The celebration of Carnival, while not a formal and official liturgical season, is a time when Catholics remember the joy of Christmas, while also preparing for Lent. In this episode we talk about the history of Carnival and Mardi Gras in the US, going back to 1699. New Orleans and it famous French Quarter are best known for Mardi Gras, but Mobile, Alabama has the longer continuous celebration. And in New Orleans the celebration now is conducted by krewes, which run the parades and balls which usher in Lent. Enjoy this stroll through the history of a festive season and celebration, plus a great outtake at the end...

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and welcome to American Catholic history.
0:08.6	If you like our podcast, be sure to rate us and give us a review wherever you get your podcasts.
0:14.6	I'm Newell Heester Crowe.
0:15.9	And I'm Tom Crowe.
0:16.9	Today we're talking about the history of Mardi Gras festivities in the United States.
0:22.1	So another episode centered on New Orleans.
0:24.7	Oh, we have had a number of those, haven't we?
0:26.9	I mean, it's a great city, and a number of remarkable Catholics have certainly left their mark.
0:31.7	Margaret Harri, Henriette DeLeu, James Longstreet, the Ursulin sisters, so many others.
0:38.1	Well, that certainly is true.
0:39.7	And we have either done an episode about them or are going to do an episode of so many
0:44.7	of them in the future.
0:45.6	Yeah, and it would be a fantastic place to plan a pilgrimage, maybe even during carnival.
0:52.4	Don't get your hopes up for that.
0:54.5	No time soon, but maybe.
0:55.9	Well, maybe.
0:56.9	Maybe we will set up a pilgrimage to New Orleans, but let's start by letting our listeners
1:01.6	know about Carnival so they can decide if they'd like to join us if we ever do do that.
1:06.4	Absolutely.
1:07.1	So, Mardi Gras and Carnival.
1:09.4	Some of our dear listeners may be wondering why we are doing an episode about, you know, what is essentially a celebration of bacchanalia.
1:16.5	Because that is not what Mardi Gras and Carnival are about. Of course not.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Noelle & Tom Crowe, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Noelle & Tom Crowe and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.