Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras is the title of a 1972 album by Creedence Clearwater Revival. [1] (http://www.realitytvworld.com/index/articles/story.php?s=1003386). In Mexico, there are big Carnival celebrations every year in Mazatlan and Veracruz that include the election of a queen and street parades. More recent news has located Chappelle back in the United States, at his house in Ohio. The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney, Australia, is a well-known pride parade. On May 14, Time announced that one of their reporters, Christopher John Farley, had interviewed Chappelle in South Africa, and that no psychiatric treatments were occurring or necessary. 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. On May 11, news sources (most notably Entertainment Weekly) indicated that Chappelle had checked himself into a psychiatric facility in South Africa.

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. Chappelle's Show is on hiatus as of May 2005 while he sorts out unspecified personal issues. 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. He told TIME Magazine in a May 2005 interview that he does not often discuss his religion publicly because he does not feel qualified to represent the Islamic faith before the public. The costumes used in these events are often homemade, emloying sheets, paints, and frequently masks of wire mesh with conical hats. He converted to Islam around 1998. These Courir can be witnessed in Church Point, Louisiana, Eunice, Louisiana, Mamou, Louisiana, Ville Platte, Louisiana, and Elton, Louisiana. When he is not touring or engaged in filming for television or the big screen, he can be seen in the shops and markets of the small college town.

In many cases, if the homeowner refuses to give an ingredient, the runners will steal one. Chappelle lives with his wife and children on a farm just outside Yellow Springs, Ohio. The homeowner will often release the animal and make the runners catch it. One of his most well-known skits has him portraying the late Rick James during his drug years, and the phrase "I'm Rick James, bitch!" has now become a part of popular culture. 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. Due to the popularity of his show, Comedy Central's parent company Viacom cut a $50 million deal with Dave Chappelle that will continue the production of "Chappelle's Show" for two more years and will allow Chappelle to do side projects. The townspeople will gather in costume and move from home to home requesting ingredients for the night's meal. By the end of the second season, it was one of the highest-rated shows on basic cable, and second only to South Park on Comedy Central.

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. His sketch comedy, which (like All in the Family before it) heavily uses racial stereotypes and slurs, including but not limited to Chappelle's African American heritage, quickly achieved great popularity. Without the restrictions on commercial ties to parades of Orleans Parish, there is much advertising and trademark placements on the parades there. In 2003, Chappelle debuted his own weekly television show on Comedy Central, Chappelle's Show. Other places in the Greater New Orleans Metro Area also have celebrations; notably the suburb of Metairie, Louisiana has large parades. In that performance, Chappelle and the executives of the show's nameless television network satirized the treatment that scriptwriters and show creators are subject to, as well as the executives' knee-jerk stereotyping when it comes to race. 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. Chappelle appeared as himself in an episode of The Larry Sanders Show.

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. He later appeared as the abrasive comedian in the remake of The Nutty Professor, had a minor role in Con Air, had a supporting role in Martin Lawrence's Blue Streak, and then wrote and starred in Half Baked, a cult film about a group of pot-smoking best friends trying to get their friend out of jail. Most parades, balls and other festivities occur on weeknights and weekends in the 2-week period before Mardi Gras Day. Chappelle turned down the role of Bubba in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump, thinking the movie would be a box office bust, and has since admitted to deeply regretting it. Officially, Mardi Gras, more properly called Carnivale, starts at the end of the twelth day of Christmas. His first major role was in Robin Hood: Men in Tights. There are as many as 60 Krewes that have parades in the greater New Orleans area. Undeterred, Chappelle became a hit at clubs along the East Coast, refining sets which were laid-back and socially conscious. By 1992, he had appeared on HBO's Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam. Catching the eye of Whoopi Goldberg, he became the youngest comic to have a featured spot on Comic Relief VI, at age 20.

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. He was promptly booed off stage. New Orleans developed new traditions, as have other places ever since. Within a year, he had a chance to perform at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. Mardi Gras came to New Orleans with the earliest French settlers. Chappelle began playing comedy clubs in his native Washington, D.C., when he was as young as 14 years old, while studying acting at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. The celebrations draw many tourists to the city in addition to the celebrating locals for the parties and parades. He attended high school in Washington, but spent his summers with his father in Yellow Springs.

New Orleans Mardi Gras is particularly well-known, often called "the greatest free show on earth". After his parents' divorce, Chappelle moved to Washington, D.C., with his mother (a Unitarian minister). Main article: New Orleans Mardi Gras. As a child Chappelle lived in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where his father taught voice and music at Antioch College, and where Chappelle attended junior high school. The Pensacola celebrations also use Moon Pies in combination with beads, coins, and small candies. He attended elementary school in Silver Spring, Maryland. This is probably due to it being geographically near Mobile, Alabama, although other possibilities exist. David Chappelle (born August 24, 1973 in Washington, D.C.) is an African American comedian, actor, and social commentator.

Pensacola, Florida is home to the third largest Mardi Gras Celebration in the United States. Robin Hood: Men in Tights, 1993. 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. Getting In, 1994. This is a special honor, because the 'double-O M's' are the oldest continuous Mardi Gras society in America. The Nutty Professor, 1996. The Mobile Mardi Gras season is always concluded by the Order of Myths parade, produced by the society of the same name. Woo, 1997.

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. Con Air, 1997. Celebration of Mardi Gras in Mobile dates back to French colonial times. You've Got Mail, 1998. Mobile, Alabama has perhaps the longest tradition of observed Mardi Gras celebration in the United States, and still celebrates it each year. 200 Cigarettes, 1998. 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. Half Baked, 1998.

Lucia and the French West Indies. Blue Streak, 1999. Other Carnivals are held on Aruba, Dominica, Grenada, St. Screwed, 2000. The most famous and largest-scale of these is in Trinidad and Tobago. Undercover Brother, 2002. 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.