Cultural Events: Mardi Gras And Carnival Carnival Carnival Rio De Janiero

A Cultural Event is an event relating to a particular culture. These events are held within cultures such as clans or tribes. These Cultural Events are aimed to help bring together the community in ways that express the beliefs, customs, and ethics shared within the culture. The term Culture can be broken down into an array of categories: Language, Social Activities, Interaction, Spirituality, Thought, and Arts & Sciences. This paper will give an in depth look into two highly publicized Cultural Events: Mardi Gras and Carnival Rio De Janiero.

Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras is celebrated once a year prior to Lent beginning. In the early 1700’s , French Colonist brought Mardi Gras to America. It flourished in New Orleans, as well as other Southern states. Mardi Gras is classified as a legal holiday in the state of Florida and Alabama, as well as 8 counties throughout Louisiana. Numerous well to do families would leave their rural estates to spend their winter months in New Orleans. During this time the families would throw extravagant parties and masked balls. In 1781, the first Mardi Gras celebration addressed problems that arose from slaves wearing mask. The United States gained power over Louisiana and in 1806 the city council made the decision to ban mask from being worn. However, in the mid 1820’s the ban was lifted and costumes and mask could now be worn. The first Mardi Gras parade took place in 1837 and became an yearly tradition. Mardi Gras is a never ending party. It is well known for its vibrant parades. The colors are : Gold, Purple, and Green. Gold symbolizes “Power”, Green signifies “Faith” and Purple stands for “Justice” People travel from all over to get in on the fun, from the huge parades to the explosion of lights, the...

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... lifetime. This parade is nothing short of amazing, it is absolutely breathtaking. Just as I watched the Mardi Gras festivities on YouTube, I watched this parade as well. The main of the amount of people this parade draws a structure had to be created to accommodate everyone that wanted to attend. This structure was named Passarela do Samba Darcy Ribeiro.

Carnival Rio De Janiero event is very similar to Mardi Gras. Although they are held in two different countries they both share the same purpose. They both are celebrated the few days prior to Lent. The days following up to Lent is considered the last days to commit sin before making a sacrifice to not give into those sins anymore. This tradition leads all the way up to Holy Thursday for Catholics and Holy Saturday for Christians. Neither event has changed aside from the fact that it has grown larger each year.