Okay, so I didn’t do anything Tuesday night for Mardi Gras and didn’t mind at all, at least not until I saw all of the pictures of carnival on MSNBC’s photo website.
Check out the slide show by clicking the image or here.
Seriously, these parties are epic! Even the pictures seem to broadcast color and noise and the sheer amount of work that went into the costumes and decorating is mind blowing.
So why is it that sitting here in Seattle I see a parking lot that is still just as full of cars as it was yesterday and not a single person in the building seems to be nursing a hangover? Why is it that the streets outside aren’t full of confetti and beads and I’m not still picking glitter out of my hair (besides the omnipresent rain, of course)?
Some of the answer goes to the obvious, Mardi Gras and Carnival are traditionally Catholic and Eastern Orthodox holidays. They mark the last day of normal time before the Lenten Season begins with all of its fasting and penitential practices. It’s the last day to really cut loose and eat all of the fatty foods and meat products that you’re planning on denying yourself for the next forty days.
This means that countries and places that really go all out for Mardi Gras tend to be traditionally Catholic or Eastern Orthodox, places like Venice, Brazil, Greece. New Orleans, holding to its French Catholic heritage, also has quite the epic celebration, but most of the traditionally Protestant United States doesn’t.
But there’s more to this than just the prevailing religion in any area. There’s a mentality in countries that celebrate holidays like Mardi Gras that doesn’t quite compute with the way people around me think and businesses operate. Now, I’m not saying that people here in Seattle don’t party and go a little crazy given the chance, but I do think that it would be near impossible for the entire city to shut down and have a revelry on par with those in New Orleans or Brazil.
Mardi Gras, after all, always occurs on a Tuesday. I can hear the protests now. Who ever heard about having a holiday in the middle of the week? Especially when everyone is going to be completely useless the day after for work. That’s two days in the midst of a hectic work week that everyone is going to miss out on! Not to mention there’s all the clean up after the huge parties, and the cost of the damage, etc.
No, there’s a kind of instinctive shudder that runs through the spine of businesses and city leaders at the thought of such a festival here. But it’s a bit hard to understand. Festivals are fun, exciting things that are celebrated the world over by huge groups of people and long, upstanding traditions. Why are we so quick to deny that? Why don’t we develop similar traditions? What is it about our society that is different from those that do celebrate Mardi Gras?
Well, one theory lies in how we perceive time. There’s a great animated presentation of a lecture by Professor Philip Zimbardoon how different countries perceive time and the implications for their societies over at RSAnimate. See for yourself: