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Mardi Gras, A Time to Party
Written by John Trausch, MA
Usually college students don't need much excuse to party through the streets... graduation, end of finals, spring break, end of studying, class let out five minutes early, or the end of the tuna surprise in the cafeteria.
 American college students home from Paris in the 1820s brought the bizarre party rituals of Mardi Gras to New Orleans, Louisiana. The scholars had celebrated Mardi Gras in France, and now home, they saw no reason to stop. They found the most bizarre and outrageous costumes they could dig up, and danced, paraded and drank their way through the streets of New Orleans.
The traditional has held, and today in New Orleans, Paris and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Mardi Gras (“Fat Tuesday”) means a traditional huge annual funfest.
 Mardi Gras celebrations got their start in pagan Rome. They staged hedonistic festivals honoring the Roman deity, Lupercus, a pastoral God associated with Faunus or the Satyr. The Romans gorged themselves with carnal pleasures, wore masks, dressed like ghosts and went crazy. Fat Tuesday is thought to have come from the Pagan custom of parading the fattest ox through the streets. Pagans would wear bizarre costumes and eat, drink and have all sorts of fun that in other times would have never been allowed.
 When the Christians took over Rome, they attempted to make the celebration, their own, and Mardi Gras became last-hurrah period of merriment and abandonment preceding the fasting period of Lent, 40 days prior to Easter. Mardi Gras is now always the day before Ash Wednesday on the Christian calendar.
Celebrating Mardi Gras on Olvera Street
 Here in Los Angeles, it doesn't take much to get awaken the spirits of Olvera Street, and Mardi Gras is a great excuse to join in. "The Olvera Street Merchants present their annual Mardi Gras celebration on On Fat Tuesday, , February 28, 2006. The day program from 9:00 a.m.-12 noon includes children's workshops, the crowning of the Little King & Queen, a parade and piñata. Evening festivities continue from 5:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. with samba dancers, stilt walkers, a colorful parade, the crowning of the King & Queen and the traditional Mal Humor burning. Chicano music group QUETZAL will also perform a free concert at 7 p.m. in the plaza. QUETZAL carries the torch for Los Angeles' Chicano community with music that reflects the soul and the struggle at the heart of the Mexican-American legacy. Their eclectic mix of Mexican and Cuban rhythms, jazz, and rock is supercharged by the dynamic vocals of siblings Martha and Gabriel Gonzalez. For more information please call (213) 625-7074 or (213) 485-8372."
So break out your purple, gold and green (Mardi Gras colors) and come on down to Olvera Street. We're a lot closer than Brazil, and a lot more fun than studying.
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