history of mardi gras - Official Street Preachers

There is a personal history of Mardi Gras with me that I would like to share with you before I get into the
roots of this wicked event. My mother was schooled in a Catholic convent and as a young woman she
was about a month away from becoming a nun, when her sister visited her with her new born daughter
and it was at that moment that my mother questioned becoming a nun. As she held that child in her
arms she was so moved with her niece that she prayed to God and put out a fleece to be removed from
her impending vow. She believed God answered her fleece and she departed from the convent. She
soon met my father who returned from serving in Korea and they married, having five children. I am the
youngest of my mothers children.
My first Mardi Gras was back in 1983 and after coming home from New Orleans that year I recall having
dinner with my parents as my mother wept from the stories I told her and after dinner she told me that
while she was in the convent she heard about all of the sin and wickedness in New Orleans. She knew
many people in New Orleans were Roman Catholics. She would fast and pray every year for those people
who willfully sinned against God.
Well, almost 30 years later her youngest son is there in the flesh, standing on those same streets holding
a banner high and preaching a very salty message to the masses. I never knew that story regarding my
mother’s prayers till that night back in 1983 and to this day whenever I leave for New Orleans I always
get a blessing from my mother! THANKS FOR BEING A PRAYER WARRIOR MOM!
SO DO WATCH WHAT YOU PRAY FOR…
I will continue to expound on my exploits in New Orleans after I finish plowing through some of its
history…
The very word ‘Mardi Gras’ is French for ‘Fat Tuesday’ and the name comes from the tradition of
slaughtering and feasting upon a fattened calf on the last day of Carnival which occurs before the
Catholic religious event called LENT. The word ‘carnival’ is Latin meaning "a farewell to the flesh." The
photo below is a picture of the fattened calf float (known as the Boeuf Graf ) down Canal Street on Fat
Tuesday as the crowds raise their hands. In 1710, the "Boeuf Graf Society" was formed and paraded
from 1711 through 1861. The procession was held with a huge bull's head pushed alone on wheels by 16
men.
This tradition of parading the bull occurs on Fat Tuesday.
Also remember that Baal, the ancient Canaanite god (who once almost supplanted true worship in Israel,
cf 1 Ki 19:18) was represented as a bull! BAAL the bull was to them a symbol of virility, strength, and
fertility. Perhaps you may also recall that at least twice in her history, Israel was made to sin through
idolatry when Aaron produced a "calf" (Lit "a young bull") of gold (cf. Ex 32); and again when Jeroboam
had two golden calves made (1 Ki 12:28). In both instances God condemned all who were involved not
only in the production of these idols, but also in the worship of them. Certainly we cannot believe that
God in heaven is pleased today when the float carrying the huge BOEUF GRAS is drawn through the
streets of New Orleans amidst a virtual sea of uplifted hands.
Because this is a festival traditionally held by Roman Catholics, the concept is to give up something for
lent through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial for 40 days as Jesus was tempted in the
wilderness for 40 days. So the attitude is that before the lent season starts up one must indulge the
flesh. The attitude is one characterized by the party spirit, party on dude! eat, drink, smoke, screw like
rabbits in heat, have your fill till your cup runneth over with iniquity! This sheds light on the word ‘Fat
Tuesday’ which means ‘get all that sin out of your system’ because the next day is ‘Ash Wednesday’ and
now you are very sorry for your sins. So, to publicly apologize for your sins, you walk around with ashes
on your forehead as a sign of remorse.
This is Lent and it occurs forty-six days (forty days not counting Sundays) before Easter. It is a moveable
feast, falling on a different dates each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter which is set by
the Pope. It can occur as early as 4 February or as late as 10 March. During this lent most good Catholics
keep the tradition of not eating meat on Friday as most of your restaurants and fast food advertise their
fish meals.
Can you believe this? No wonder the Catholic church is massive, you get to premeditate your sin, go sin
all you want until a particular day, then get ashes for your forehead, put a few bucks in the plate and
light a candle to an idol on the way out of church. WOW, I must have missed Sunday school that day.
Does repentance and the blood of Jesus mean anything? Where do we find ashes for the head in the
Bible? Where do we find license to sin till a particular day in the Bible? Where do we find, if you are
going to repent, really sin first in the Bible? This is the same thing as the old Catholic concept of selling
INDULGENCES!
“Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” -Mark 7:7
Preaching Mardi Gras Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8uamIBliM
The celebration of Mardi Gras came to North America from Paris, where it had been celebrated since the
Middle Ages. In 1699, French explorer Iberville and his men explored the Mississippi River from the Gulf
of Mexico. On a spot 60 miles south of the present location of New Orleans, they set up camp on the
river's West Bank. Knowing that the day, March 3, was being celebrated as a major holiday in France,
they christened the site Point du Mardi Gras. He also established "Fort Louis de la Louisiane" (which is
now Mobile) in 1702. In 1703, the tiny settlement of Fort Louis de la Mobile celebrated the very first
Mardi Gras. The residents of Mobile, Alabama celebrate Mardi Gras every year and boast that their
celebration was the ‘original’ celebration of this wicked day! I must add that the Mobile, Alabama
celebration is not even close to the type of lust filled and debauched celebration of sin that one finds in
New Orleans…I have preached at the Mobile, Alabama Mardi Gras in the past and I know this to be true.
New Orleans was established in 1718 by Jean-Baptise Le Moyne. By the 1730s, Mardi Gras was
celebrated openly in New Orleans. But Mardi Gras' roots predate the French. Many see a relationship to
the ancient tribal rituals of fertility that welcomed the arrival of Spring. A possible ancestor of the
celebration was the Lupercalia, a circus-like orgy held in mid-February in Rome. The early Church fathers,
realizing that it was impossible to divorce their new converts from their pagan customs, decided instead
to direct them into Christian channels. Thus ‘Carnival’ was created as a period of merriment that would
serve as a prelude to the penitential season of Lent.
Unfortunately, by this time the Catholic church was deeply compromised in its faith, morals, doctrine and
practice. Instead of resisting it actually began to absorb the blatantly pagan festivals that it had failed to
suppress and adopted an "if you can't beat them, join them" attitude. For instance, in 325 A.D. the
Council of Nicea fixed the date for this Easter celebration. It would vary each year but would always fall
on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring Equinox
Masks were worn to conceal identification as in the late 1700s pre-Lenten balls and feasts were held in
New Orleans. Under French rule masked balls flourished, but were later banned by the Spanish
governors. The prohibition continued when New Orleans became an American city in 1803, but by 1823,
the Creole populace prevailed upon the American governor, and balls were again permitted. Four years
later street masking was legalized.
In the early 19th Century, the public celebration of Mardi Gras consisted mainly of maskers on foot, in
carriages and on horseback. In 1837, a costumed group of revelers walked in the first documented
parade. The Comus organization paraded in 1857 and coined the word "krewe" and established several
Mardi Gras traditions by forming a secret Carnival society, choosing a mythological namesake, presenting
a themed parade with floats and costumed maskers, and staging a tableau ball. Soon other groups
joined he parades using Roman, Greek and Egyptian god themes. Night parades were possible with
flame-wielding "flambeaux carriers," who walked the parade between floats, they would spin, twirl and
dip their bodies all while keeping their torches aflame. Most carriers were initially black slaves and the
tradition of tossing them coins continues to this day.
The new Century brought with it some difficult years. World War I canceled Carnival in 1918-1919, In
fact on a side note after a little more than 150 years, Mardi Gras has only been canceled about a dozen
times, typically for disease (yellow fever in the late 1870s) or conflict the Civil War and both World Wars.
But Mardi Gras survived this struggle, along with the Prohibition of the Twenties and the Great
Depression of the Thirties. World War II canceled four Carnivals; the first women's parade walked the
streets of New Orleans with the Krewe of Venus'
The Sixties were characterized by turbulence and change. The early years saw the Tourist Commission
try to convince the hippies that the title "Greatest Free Show on Earth" was not to be taken literally. The
Easy Rider generation had City Hall worried, and rumors that the infamous Hell's Angels were going to
roll into town and crash Carnival had the entire town uptight. Nothing negative happened, and Carnival
continued.
The eighties seemed to bring in the public nudity and with video cameras everywhere exposing the free
bareness and revealing it worldwide. Everything I have read from past generations of Mardi gras does
not note the filthiness that the eighties seemed to publicly promote. It is my testimony that the crowds
today are dwarfed by the crowds that gathered back in the 1980’s. Most of the French quarter was filled
with humanity back then whereas today the crowds are only big enough to fill Bourbon Street with minor
overflow into Jackson Square. The crowds on Bourbon Street in the 1980’s were so thick it might take 2
hours to walk one block. Much of the lewdness and drunkenness came from college students out on
Spring Break which only attracted perverts to watch the young boys and girls get drunk and naked..
Before the age of recycling, the success of Mardi Gras in Orleans Parish was sometimes measured by the
amount of trash collected by the New Orleans Sanitation Department. For several years in the late 1980s,
the total for the 12-day parading season topped the 2,000-ton mark. Mardi Gras means money to the
city! According to a research department at U.N.O. over 300 million dollars was spent for Carnival in
1988. The Bible says “the love of money is the root of all evil” so understand that I do not see New
Orleans stopping this venue until....well…..the city is completely destroyed.
New Orleans is rich in Catholic history, counties are labeled parishes and the oldest Cathedral in the USA
is right there in New Orleans. Saint Louis Cathedral has the distinction of being the oldest continuously
operating cathedral in the United States. The first church on the site was built in 1718. The third church,
built in 1789, was raised to cathedral rank in 1793. Hurricane Katrina did a little damage as the
Cathedral faces the Mississippi and the Gulf, winds tore a hole in the roof. Water entering the building
poured into the Holtkamp pipe organ and severely damaged it. Shortly after the storm, the organ was
sent back to Holtkamp to be rebuilt. The high winds managed to displace two large oak trees in St.
Anthony's Garden behind the Cathedral. The trees dislodged thirty feet of ornamental gate, while the
nearby marble statue of Jesus Christ lost only a forefinger and a thumb.
This plaque is on the front of the Cathedral and titles the pope “His Holiness” well I guess when Jesus
said call no man “fathers’ or ‘masters’ the Catholic church coined new name like ‘pope’ and ‘his holiness.’
The very title ‘Holy Father’ is to God alone, this should speak volumes.
“And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep
through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are”
-John 17:11
The city of New Orleans is named after one Philippe II, Duc d'Orléans, The Catholic Church has had a
presence in New Orleans since the founding of the city by the French in 1718. New Orleans and the rest
of Louisiana west of the Mississippi were surrendered to the Spanish in 1763. It is the second-oldest
diocese in the present-day United States, having been elevated to the rank of diocese on 25 April 1793
by Pope Pius VI during Spanish colonial rule. The population of the city doubled in the 1830s and by
1840, New Orleans had become the wealthiest and third-most populous city in the nation. Dwarfing in
population the other cities in the antebellum South, New Orleans had, consequently, the largest slave
market. Two-thirds of the more than one million slaves brought to the Deep South arrived via the forced
migration of the internal slave trade. And with it came JAZZ…well…
New Orleans was the Birth Place of jazz. After the civil war there was a surplus of brass instruments
couple that with immigrants and former slaves from all over the world, groups began to play together,
blacks brought a beat, whites brought the horns and a new sound emerged.
It is common knowledge that the French Quarter always had Brothels and there was an area known as
‘Storyville’ in this district which was set up to limit prostitution to one area of town where authorities
could monitor and regulate the practice. Now this famed red light district of New Orleans or Storyville is
often given credit with giving the name to jazz. It seems the women of the brothels, in an effort to
counter the smells of the swampy city, would wear Jasmine perfume. When one left the company of the
lady smelling of jasmine, one was said to be “jassed.” When musicians at the brothels would make their
music sexy to inspire customers, they were said to have “jassed,” or sexed-up the music. This music was
designed to entice and relax paying customers to drink and fornicate. Black and white brothels coexisted
in Storyville; however, black men were barred from legally purchasing services rendered in either black or
white brothels. Brothel owners would advertise their musicians with signs that would announce “Live
Jass.” When mischievous children would come along and wipe off the “j,” owners decided to change the
“s”’s to “z”’s in an effort not to offend people.
Now you can’t celebrate Mardi Gras today without parades, complete with floats.
Each parade is known as a Krewe which will elect a king, queen and their court for a year.
These people ride the floats and toss cheap colorful beads, dubloons, decorated plastic throw cups, and
small inexpensive toys to the mob below. And EACH YEAR at least one person falls into the street (most
likely drunk) and is run over by a float. There is nothing “official” for Mardi Gras, for Orleans Parish has
laws prohibiting commercial advertising on Carnival parades. As Mardi Gras is a traditional calendar
holiday, there is no such thing as an "official" Mardi Gras product or sponsor.
This is supposed to be just harmless wholesome fun, besides its religious right?
Each parade has floats, bands, dance groups, posses, clown units and motorcycle squadrons and more
and to give you a number of what gets tossed down to the crowds with only three parades (Bacchus,
Endymion and Orpheus) scheduled for the three nights before Fat Tuesday, will throw more than 2
million cups, 3.5 million doubloons and 350,000 gross of beads to the crowds on the route (1 gross is 144
beads). On Fat Tuesday the parades start at 8AM and the city is closed, no schools, banks, post office,
all closed, its a holiday. After each parade everyone files into Bourbon Street to exchange those beads for
looking at flesh. Women will expose themselves for a plastic bead…WOW….that’s cheaper than a crack
whore.
With a venue like this I am surprised that men like Bill Clinton or Tiger Woods are not the grand poobah
and the perverts on the street are not walking around in yellow rain coats. These men are walking
around the streets like dogs in heat holding a camera looking for flesh to film, it’s really one massive
event for peeping toms with the street functioning as nothing more than a big window for perverts.
These poor souls think they had a problem with lust, wait till they leave New Orleans, they welcomed
demons into their life on a Red Carpet and they will pay for these sins in ways that will cost them more
than they realize! Their lust problem will be turned into lasciviousness, and their masturbation problem
well increase and prostitutes will be as common as breathing…for some, it will lead them into homo-sex
perversion!
On Tuesday, promptly at the stroke of midnight it’s the end of Fat Tuesday. At this point a mounted
squad of New Orleans police officers clears Bourbon Street, they make the announcement that Mardi
Gras is officially over, and that it is now the start of Lent. So good Catholics will walk out and say to the
street preacher “sorry I tossed my beer on you sir” or “sorry I pushed you” and how can we forget the
“hey buddy sorry I grabbed your megaphone and pulled your banner” yes all the good Catholics slither
away and pass out somewhere. Bourbon Street is now open to cars as any sinner left must revel on the
sidewalk around the trash.
BUT THIS IS A RELIGIOUS FESTIVAL, RIGHT?
HERE A FEW SATISFIED CUSTOMERS FROM MARDI GRAS
NOW THE MILLION DOLLAR QUE$TION IS WHY DO WE GO THERE?
Continued in Part II