Purple, green and gold–are you ready for Mardi Gras? The annual celebration is just around the corner–February 16, 2010. Plan ahead a bit so you won’t have to scurry around to find worthy outfits and beads in those all-important Mardi Gras colors!
Not everyone who attends Mardi Gras, or Carnival, knows the story behind the festival, or the colors. Mardi Gras (meaning “Fat Tuesday”) began as a pagan festival in Europe. People partied to excess in anticipation of doing without during Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday. The Carnival season actually begins in early January, on the feast of the Epiphany, with Mardi Gras being the final, culminating event. In New Orleans, it has now been celebrated for over 300 years, and is actually observed in many other places, as well.
Initially, Mardi Gras consisted of small parades of townspeople dressed in simple costumes. In 1872, some of the wealthy businessmen decided to upgrade by appointing a king of the carnival season to lead the parade. The king became known as the Rex, and the first title was awarded to Grand Duke Alexis of Romanoff, who happened to be visiting from Russia that year.
The Grand Duke was known for throwing gold coins to the crowds of parade-watchers, and this rather expensive habit eventually evolved into the tossing of purple, green and gold beads. He actually chose these colors for Mardi Gras, probably because he liked their “royal” hues. There was no significance attached to the colors at the time, but we do know he later chose them for his own family crest.
If we fast forward 20 years to 1892, the significance of the colors was revealed in the theme of the parade that year—The Symbolism of Color. Purple stood for justice, green stood for faith, and gold represented power.
And so it continues today at Mardi Gras time in New Orleans. The beautiful colors of purple, green and gold come alive in the costumes of the revelers and fly through the air in the form of glitzy beads.