Yellowman

By the mid-1990s, though, Yellowman released socially conscious material, rising to international fame as part of a popularization led by singers like Buju Banton. Mardi Gras is the title of a 1972 album by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Violent and sexually explicit lyrics earned Yellowman some criticism in the mid-1980s, along with most of the rest of the ragga community. In Mexico, there are big Carnival celebrations every year in Mazatlan and Veracruz that include the election of a queen and street parades. His exaggerated sexual prowess, combined with his long-time social outcast status as an albino (who are denigrated in Jamaica), made Yellowman very popular. The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney, Australia, is a well-known pride parade. He was extremely popular in Jamaica in the 1980s, coming to prominence with a series of funky, sexy singles that established his reputation. Mardi Gras is one of only three exceptions to the Louisiana law (http://www.legis.state.la.us/lss/lss.asp?doc=78402) against wearing hoods and masks in public, the other two being Halloween and religious beliefs.

Yellowman (born Winston Foster in 1956 or 1959) is a Jamaican dub, ragga and dancehall musician. There are also Mardi Gras parades in Northern Louisiana in Shreveport, Louisiana by the Krewe of Centaur and the Krewe of Gemini and in Monroe, Louisiana and West Monroe, Louisiana by the Krewe of Janus. Photograph of Yellowman (http://www.reggaephotos.com/images/Yellowman_7-5-03/Yellowman_009.jpg). Many small towns and cities throughout southern Louisiana have Mardi Gras parades in the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras day, and particularly on that day. The costumes used in these events are often homemade, emloying sheets, paints, and frequently masks of wire mesh with conical hats. These Courir can be witnessed in Church Point, Louisiana, Eunice, Louisiana, Mamou, Louisiana, Ville Platte, Louisiana, and Elton, Louisiana.

In many cases, if the homeowner refuses to give an ingredient, the runners will steal one. The homeowner will often release the animal and make the runners catch it. The requested homeowner may comply with their wishes, usually by giving some form of vegetable or live animal, such as a chicken or pig, to the members of the run. The townspeople will gather in costume and move from home to home requesting ingredients for the night's meal.

In parts of the Cajun country of southwestern Louisiana, the traditional Courir du Mardi Gras (French - Running of the Mardi Gras)is still run, sometimes by maskers on horseback who gather ingredients for making the communal meal. Without the restrictions on commercial ties to parades of Orleans Parish, there is much advertising and trademark placements on the parades there. Other places in the Greater New Orleans Metro Area also have celebrations; notably the suburb of Metairie, Louisiana has large parades. Particularly since the inception of the larger parade organizations (sometimes called "super krewes") such as Bacchus and Endymion, it has become fashionable to invite Hollywood and other celebrities to act as Grand Marshals for parades.

Though each parade is unique, there are certain common ingredients: 1) either a King or Queen who reigns over the parade, picked from the Krewe membership; 2) gaily colored floats, ridden by Krewe members, who throw various items, including beads, doubloons with the Krewe emblem and often, that year's parade's theme, and assorted other fun items; 3) marching bands, usually from high schools and universities, but often other invited guest bands. Most parades, balls and other festivities occur on weeknights and weekends in the 2-week period before Mardi Gras Day. Officially, Mardi Gras, more properly called Carnivale, starts at the end of the twelth day of Christmas. There are as many as 60 Krewes that have parades in the greater New Orleans area.

New Orleans traditions include Krewes such as the Krewe du Vieux, the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club, and the famous Rex parade, in addition to Mardi Gras Indians and king cake parties. New Orleans developed new traditions, as have other places ever since. Mardi Gras came to New Orleans with the earliest French settlers. The celebrations draw many tourists to the city in addition to the celebrating locals for the parties and parades.

New Orleans Mardi Gras is particularly well-known, often called "the greatest free show on earth". Main article: New Orleans Mardi Gras. The Pensacola celebrations also use Moon Pies in combination with beads, coins, and small candies. This is probably due to it being geographically near Mobile, Alabama, although other possibilities exist.

Pensacola, Florida is home to the third largest Mardi Gras Celebration in the United States. Throughout each parade, mystic maskers throw trinkets, beads, candy, coins and Moon Pies, a sweet baked good that combines a graham cracker like crust with marshmallow, and is then covered in a flavored frosting. This is a special honor, because the 'double-O M's' are the oldest continuous Mardi Gras society in America. The Mobile Mardi Gras season is always concluded by the Order of Myths parade, produced by the society of the same name.

Celebrations were halted with the American Civil War, but were revived with a parade by Joe Cain in 1866, whose memory is still honored each Carnival. Celebration of Mardi Gras in Mobile dates back to French colonial times. Mobile, Alabama has perhaps the longest tradition of observed Mardi Gras celebration in the United States, and still celebrates it each year. Within the United States, it was originally celebrated by French settlers along the Mississipi coast of the Gulf of Mexico as a series of house parties.

Lucia and the French West Indies. Other Carnivals are held on Aruba, Dominica, Grenada, St. The most famous and largest-scale of these is in Trinidad and Tobago. In the Caribbean, Carnival is celebrated on a number of islands.

See: Brazilian Carnival. In Brazil, the Carnival celebrations in Recife, Olinda, Salvador are well-known, among others. As a result the biggest festival there, the Quebec City Winter Carnival was eventually moved from a lunar calendar, set with Easter in mind, to a solar calendar, and other winter carnivals in Quebec followed suit, abandoning the traditional Christian dates and placing the midwinter celebration at the end of January and the beginning of February, in order to avoid the danger of a late February or early March meltdown of carnival ice sculptures, ice castles and snow trails. In Quebec the Carnival period traditionally coincided with the coldest days of the year when temperatures dropped to forty degrees below zero, linking it to snow and ice sports.

Carnival is an important celebration in most of Europe (Especially Southern Europe), and in many parts of Latin America and the Caribbean. Perhaps the three cities most famous for their Mardi Gras celebrations are New Orleans (whose Carnival has become legendary), Rio de Janeiro (known for having the most ostentatious and licentious Carnival), and Venice (whose Carnival traditions have their roots in pagan times, and were shaped into what they are today during the Renaissance.) Many other places have important Mardi Gras celebrations as well.
. Mardi Gras falls on the following dates in the following years:.

Like Lent, the date is dependent on that of Easter. The date can vary from February 3 to March 9 in non-leap years or February 4 to March 9 in leap years. The feast should not be confused with the Polish Fat Thursday. It is a celebration that is held just before the beginning of the Christian liturgical season of Lent.

Mardi Gras (French for "Fat Tuesday") is the day before Ash Wednesday, and is also called "Shrove Tuesday", the final day of Carnival (pronounced "CAR-nuh-vul" in English; "car-nee-VAHL" in most Romance languages – and in New Orleans, Lousiana, because of its French heritage). 2014 - March 4. 2013 - February 12. 2012 - February 21.

2011 - March 8. 2010 - February 16. 2009 - February 24. 2008 - February 5.

2007 - February 20. 2006 - February 28.