Mardi Gras, also referred to as Fat Tuesday and Shrove Tuesday, is a celebration that occurs worldwide with people who want to indulge in all things they would give up for Lent—throwing festive parties and cooking celebratory food—between the Christian Epiphany and Fat Tuesday.
Fat Tuesday is to mark the day before the beginning of the 40 days of Lent. As the year commences, many students anticipate certain events and occasions laid out in the early months. While some students have looked forward to the well-known ladies’ choice dance Sadie Hawkins and the awaited Super Bowl XLVI game, others have foreseen an enjoyable Mardi Gras event. This year, Mardi Gras will be starting on Tuesday, Feb. 21.
Although the central part of the Mardi Gras occasion is to indulge in as much as achievable, every family has their own way of rejoicing during the festival. Certain people cook some of the most distinguished dishes of Mardi Gras like king cakes and gumbo.
“I enjoy jambalaya, gumbo, etouffee and king cake because food like these is basically home,” senior Kristan Schiele said. “Even though you could gain five pounds it is the best comfort food.”
Schiele and her family annually travel down to the New Orleans, Louisiana area with other relatives and close friends to partake in the crowds along the side of the parades, consisting of overly decorated floats, in hopes of catching the “best selection of beads, swords and light up toys”.
“We say the typical cheer, ‘throw me somthin, mister!’’ Schiele said. “We also hold signs or small children up in the air as leverage for the good stuff. It is the cute factor.”
Like Schiele, junior Andrew Creppel is fond of the festive atmosphere in the streets of New Orleans. For the whole weekend, Creppel, his family, relatives and close friends have a scaffolding on St. Charles Avenue and a trailer slot right behind the parking lot to dance to the music, yell for beads and play football.
“There is really no other way to celebrate it if you want to really experience the true fun of Mardi Gras,” Creppel said. “It is a lot different there than some of these other parades in Galveston.”
Creppel also enjoys the elaborate parades along St. Charles Avenue like Bacchus and Endymion. Bacchus and Endymion is a parade, consisting of 10 specific parades with their own separate theme.
“Bacchus and Endymion are the night parades with the best bands and most creative and lit up floats,” Creppel said. “They are the best parades to experience what Mardi Gras is really like and how great it can be.”
Sophomore Avery Draut frequently goes to Galveston to eat king cakes and catch beads from the floats because it is much closer than the “Big Easy” but hopes to one day travel to New Orleans during the carnival-like season.
“Even though I enjoy myself in Galveston, it is definitely not the same as the atmosphere New Orleans has,” Draut said. “Mardi Gras in New Orleans is a whole lot better than Galveston.”
As Mardi Gras draws near, expectations grow higher for the overall experience this new year. This Mardi Gras season marks Schiele’s eighteenth birthday so she expects bigger and better parades while the finest music plays in the background.
“I am looking forward to celebrating the beginning of adulthood in a place with such lively culture during this time of the year,” Schiele said.