Lafayette Holi: The Festival Of Girard Park

Mardi Gras, first introduced to New Orleans in the early 1730s, is now one of the most celebrated holidays by many natives in Louisiana. Several events are planned for the celebration, beginning in late October or November, which leads into the Mardi Gras season. Mardi Gras involves a series of events and products like Mardi Gras Balls, delicious cakes that are famously known as King Cakes, and parades every day beginning in January and ending on the day that is designated Mardi Gras Day, also known as Fat Tuesday. Fat Tuesday is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, the Catholic holiday that marks the beginning of Lent. During the parades, the people riding on the floats throw beads, candy, and stuffed animals, sometimes even other things, to those who have come from all around the world to witness a true New Orleans Mardi Gras. Some companies will even shut down their businesses to celebrate this holiday, even though it is not a national holiday. By

Lafayette Louisiana witch is the capital of the Cajun Country. Has the second biggest Mardi Gras celebration. This celebration has lost its meaning. More of a tourist profit to the state this celebration would be a very hard challenge to get the state to bring its meaning back. In the old days, Mardi Gras was not just the day before Ash Wednesday. It was a day that people rode on horseback or in their trucks going to town’s businesses and neighborhoods. Once the owner of the homes or businesses allowed these people to come in the masked people started to sing, dance, play around or even play pranks on the people who allowed them in. Before the masked people left the begged the owners of the business or home for rice or other things. If they gave them something such as money or things to make a gumbo, they allowed that person to a gumbo feast that was held that evening. And if they did not the masked people would destroy their home or business. They might even mock them for years to come.” This group of masked people was known as classed Les Mardi Gras, or in English the Mardi Gras.” (Ware, 2003) Today Cajun’s don't celebrate it this way anymore. Mardi Gras is considered to be paradise, festivals, drinking and getting as many beads as you can. The masked people can still be seen but not asking for things to make a gumbo or money but as a symbol in the

All around Louisiana, the people celebrate Mardi Gras in early spring. Urban cities such as New Orleans and Baton Rouge utilize fancy bright lighted parades, celebrity kings and queens, and shiny beads to celebrate the festivities. Growing up in south Louisiana, I attended many of these parades in the Big Easy. My grandparents would tell stories of rural Mardi Gras and the Cajun culture. After hearing their stories, I decided to attend the courir de Mardi Gras. The courir de Mardi Gras is a traditional Mardi Gras event held the Tuesday before the catholic lent season in small rural towns. This is known as Fat Tuesday run.

The town of Angelica held its annual Heritage Days festival on August 6th and 7th. The event acts to showcase and celebrate the history of the town and people connected to it. As I am a historian and this my home town, I tend to attend this event, and this year was no different.

Merriam-Webster defines the word artifact as something created by human usually for a practical purpose: an object remaining from a particular period. In my family, there aren’t a lot of artifacts, but we do have a special artifact that means a lot to my mom’s side of the family. Similar to the way Brazilians celebrate Brazilian Carnival, in New Orleans, we celebrate Mardi Gras. Celebrating Mardi Gras is my family tradition. But my mom and I haven’t been in years due to school complications and other commitments. Every year when my mom and I miss Mardi Gras we go to the basement and find different Mardi Gras beads, and where them all day.

Mardi Gras is a huge celebration in New Orleans that lasts about two weeks long and thousands of people come out and travel to New Orleans just for Mardi Gras. The traditional colors of Mardi Gras are usually variations of green, purple, and gold. While Mardi Gras is a fun celebration, there are many other festivals and celebrations in Louisiana that are just as

More than 150 different floats, organizations and groups join in walking in, include Several people from the News 18 team.

This February I attended the Asheville Mardi Gras Parade downtown as my cultural event. The parade moved through the South Slope brewery district, and featured a wide array of floats, costumes, and music. For example, the Ashevillage People had a float designed to emulate a phoenix with flames surrounding it. I had a fulfilling time, and it was a very enjoyable way to spend a few hours seeings the community of Asheville come together and see all the attractions. Asheville is very well known for its wide range of arts and culture, and that really was apparent during the Mardi Gras parade in the great variety of depictions all inspired from various regional cultures. Western North Carolina has its own, unique way of life and I was glad to see Mardi Gras adapted to work with it so effortlessly and beautifully.

Lafayette has plenty of recreational activities for people of all ages to enjoy. The city has three golf courses as well as three public tennis courts. It is also home to Acadiana Park Nature Station and its scenic nature trails.

This paper is about Mardi Gras, A festival or Carnival celebrated once a year. In this paper I will discuss how Mardi Gras originated, when it is celebrated, how it is celebrated, and what does it mean to all the different cultures. Mardi Gras, in the French speaking parts of the world and in some US southern states is the last day of carnival festivities preceding Lent, the time of penitence observed by Christians in preparation for Easter. Mardi Gras ("Fat Tuesday") is a French term for Shrove Tuesday, the day before the start of Lent. Before Lent festivities reach the climax on a day in February or March, depending on what date Easter is.(Americana pg. 308)

     Since Buddhism and Hinduism have different believes they also have different holy days. Moreover, because Hindus worship variety of gods they have a variety of festivals. The three main festivals of Hinduism are: Holi, Divali, and Dasehra. Holi is the most popular festival. This holy day is celebrated each year during February-March to welcome spring. “Holi is dedicated to god Krishna and it was once a fertility ceremony (104).” Throughout the days of Holi, many of the casts and taboo restrictions are set aside and pleasure is emphasized. The second ceremony Divali, celebrated in November, is a festival to welcome a new year. Finally the third festival, the Dasehra, celebrated up to nine days in October, in honor of Durga, a consort of Shiva. On the other hand Buddhism is divided in many ways according to philosophy and geography. The major festivals that are celebrated by most Buddhists are New Year, Buddha’s birthday, the festival of souls, and robe offering. In

Because different races experience race relations through contrasting lenses, people have diverse ways of explaining their history. This is because of the very different ways people of different races live their lives. For example, Native Americans would have a completely different view on race relations than Christopher Columbus would. To explain they way a culture views race relations, the meaning is often symbolically constructed. The social construct of “blackness” and how it is symbolically constructed is a good example to use. In two different Salasacan festivals, blackness is seen in two polar opposite ways. In the pre-Lenten carnival, blackness is seen as an oppressed slave who self-liberated himself. In the festival of Caporales, blackness

In Uwem Akpan’s short story “An Ex-mas Feast,” we are presented with a sad story narrated by a boy named Jigani. His older sister is only twelve and is already a sex worker. Throughout the story, the reader is more and more informed on the relationship between stigma and sexuality in this area. Like many foreign countries outside the United States, women are viewed as these things that were created to cook, clean, take care of the house, and take care of the children. Jigani’s father, Baba, displays this when he is having a heated conversation with Jigani. Jigani tells Baba that he does not want to go to school anymore because he doesn’t want his older sister, Maisha to leave. Upset at what he hears, Baba responds by saying “You

Within my family we have few traditions that are massively prevalent; however, camping and a trip to Leavenworth to see the Lighting Festival are two cornerstones with my family. My personal favorite is the Lighting Festival, we go a few times a year to Leavenworth; therefore, going to Leavenworth can be boring after so many times. Yet, I am always happy to go during the Lighting Festival. During this festival, the store shut down and the music is interrupted at 4:30pm, for the arrival of St. Nickolaus, for the story of his legacy and “gold” for good boys and girls. This story and its tradition has been in my family since I was a child. I cherish it greatly and love to see my younger siblings have the same warm experiences. However, camping

As for the setting of Holi, I feel that setting of the park did contribute to the program because we know that parks are locations that unite and make people interact and socialize with each other when there are activities occurring throughout the park. So in the case of this program, it received a variety of individuals that are Indians and others that are not, which relates to this quotation “you can’t change people. But if you change the environment then the people will change”(Eisner, pg. 107), which explains that the people that are from different cultures that attended Holi will adapt to the setting as they enter the event. The berm of this program would be that booths were set up in a box shape and where I entered from was elevated,