Updates, Quotes, and Revisiting Ancient Celebrations

Fast Updates:

Wishing you all a safe and happy February!

We met some amazing creative folks while traveling during the month of January and we are really looking forward to our upcoming conventions!

Added Event: Oz Extravaganza

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Also:

readersfavorite.com will have three of my available books listed as prizes in the monthly book giveaway. If you are interested in winning some amazing books by great authors you can check out the monthly giveaway here: book giveaway /Rise or here for The Warning Signs: giveaway/the-warning-signs and here: book-giveaway/combo.

Upcoming Event Reminders:

2024

On February 3rd and 4th we plan to participate at the Champaign, IL Quad Con! This event is set to take place at the Market Place Shopping Center.

Concealed Realms is scheduled to return to Saluki Con! This Eclipse Con will be held on April 6th and 7th.

Concealed Realms is scheduled to be at the Oz-Stravaganza! This event takes place May 31st – June 2nd in Chittenango, NY.

Concealed Realms plans to participate at the inaugural horror fiesta in Peoria IL on September 14th. This event is set to take place at the exposition gardens opera house

Quotes About Festivals:

“Mardi Gras is the love of life. It is the harmonic convergence of our food,

our music, our creativity, our eccentricity, our neighborhoods, and our joy of living. All at once.” -Chris Rose.”

“Festivals are occasions to empower ourselves in the course of humanity

– they are the occasions to rekindle the promise of humanity in our heart

– the promise that we keep forgetting in the cacophony of manmade labels.”

– Abhijit Naskar,”

“Throughout the year, in all religions, in all seasons; we Indians find reasons, to worship almost everything and everyone; from people to Gods; from animals to plants; from planets to stars. So our spirits are always high with small surprises of life, we cherish meeting and greeting people, for we celebrate every aspect of being human.”
– Vikrmn: CA Vikram Verma, You By You”

–

“An American has not seen the United States until he has seen Mardi Gras in New Orleans.”

–Mark Twain

“Live every day as if it is a festival. Turn your life into a celebration”

– Shri Radhe Maa

.” –

“Each year, every city in the world that can should have a multiday festival. More people meeting each other, digging new types of music, new foods, new ideas.”

-Henry Rollins

–

“Before it became known as St. Valentine’s Day, February 14 was the eve of the ancient Roman spring fertility and purification festival Lupercalia.”

-Deborah A. Levine

“.Holidays and festivals are rooted in history and tradition.”

– Whitney Stewart

–

“The greatness of a culture can be found in its festivals”

-Siddharth Katragadda

“Inspired by St. George’s chivalrous deed, a Rose festival celebrating romance and gallantry has been held in Barcelona since the Middle Ages.”

– Deborah A. Levine

Definition of festival:

Dictionary.com

Noun

A. ”a day or time of religious or other celebration, marked by feasting, ceremonies, or other observances. “

B. “a periodic commemoration, anniversary, or celebration.” – www.dictionary.com

Merriam Webster.com

Noun

” a time of celebration marked by special observances” – merriamwebster.com

Festivals

Since antiquity, there have been festivals. These celebrations which centered on faith, honor, local culture, and everyday life have been present in virtually all societies. Back in 2019, we touched base on a few such festivals which took place around the Winter Solstice. In that post we found that although they have transformed a lot throughout the ages, many of these more ancient celebrations live on today through certain customs and traditions which are still practiced.

This time I wanted to focus on a festival which Leeds up to lent. This popular holiday is celebrated in many countries around the world and is currently commonly known as Mardi Gras. In this post I will take a brief look at an few of the older festivals where its origins are believed to lie and share two recipes for a carnival treat known as king cake.

Today, Mardi Gras, also known as Carnival (Carnevale, Karneval), mainly takes place where there are large Roman Catholic populations. It is traditionally celebrated on the day before the Lent fasting season begins, but in certain areas it has transformed into a week of festivities. Some of the biggest carnival celebrations happen in Italy, Brazil, and New Orleans where there are different festive parades, vibrant costumes, masquerade balls, and election of “royalty” to celebrate.

The Carnival season begins on January 6th with the biggest celebration arriving on Fat Tuesday, which is February 13th this year. Mardi Gras always falls exactly 47 days before Easter. Easter is determined by the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox and since the two holidays are connected, Mardi Gras changes dates in the same way.

Mardi Gras roots are said to date back thousands of years with its origins being linked to pagan celebrations such as the Roman festivals of Saturnalia, which was dedicated to Saturn, the Roman God of the Harvest, and Lupercalia, a festival of fertility and prosperity honoring Juno. Although theories are abundant about the exacts, historians agree that when Christianity arrived in Rome, religious leaders worked to incorporate popular local traditions into the new faith, rather than attempting to abolish them altogether. As a result, some older customs of the season became a prelude to Lent.

One of the earliest such festivals was the Feast of Fools. Taking place between Christmas and Lent, this holiday was celebrated first by the clergy in France during the Middle Ages, before its popularity spread through Europe. The tradition remained in place well into the Elizabethan period.

A comparison between Saturnalia and the later celebrated Feast of Fools show a few examples where mirroring traditions were practiced. For example, during Saturnalia a public banquet was held. The feasting was followed by continual partying and the gifting of small figurines or tokens, which were generally meant as jokes or gag gifts. The festivities also included the overturning of social norms. For instance, gambling was permitted, and masters provided table service for their slaves.

One other common custom was the election of a “King of the Saturnalia”, who gave orders to people and presided over the merrymaking. The decision of who would be “king” was determined by a cake with a bean hidden inside. Whoever found the bean during its consumption was crowned. Ancient Romans celebrated Saturnalia on December 17(ten month Roman Calendar), but the holiday became so wildly popular it ended up lasting seven days.

Similarly at its inception, during the feast of fools the higher and lower level clergy would change places and participants would elect either a false Bishop or false Pope to preside over them. Later when popularity grew, it seems so did the parallels.

One custom that became widespread was to elect a young male to parody high ranking church officials. The Boy Bishop, went by many names in different countries, although the theme was similar in that, priests handed over their church to the child who dressed in full official attire and presided over services for the day.

The normally rigid restraints placed on public behavior were abandoned during the celebration and all over town churchgoers partied, sometimes even gambling at the church altar and marched in what was considered to be lewd parades with the Boy, who was said to hand out vulgar blessings during this colorful procession through town.

With time, the custom of appointing the Boy Bishop during the Feast of Fools grew into the crowning of King of the Bean and the cake itself was nicknamed kings cake. Generally a trinket or bean was baked into a cake and whichever party goer was served the slice containing the prize was named king of the feast. Once appointed, the Bean King was given royal privileges as the “Lord of Misrule.” He played pranks, overindulged, and misbehaved. Later the meaning of the cake itself would further evolve along with its name and what would be baked inside, but the practice of consuming king cake during Mardi Gras, is still alive today.

While the Feast of Fools fell into disfavor, by the 13th century Carnival took its place in Europe.

The festivities in the Americas didn’t begin until 1699, when French explorers Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville and Sieur de Bienville landed near present-day New Orleans. It’s said that they held a small celebration and dubbed their landing spot Point du Mardi Gras, when his men realized it was the eve of the festive holiday. As time went on other French settlements began marking the holiday with parties, balls and lavish dinners.

However, when the Spanish took control of New Orleans they did away with these traditions and bans remained in place until Louisiana became a U.S. state in 1812. Since then, the celebrations in the Americas have grown and transformed immensely with the modern Carnival season borrowing traditions from many older celebrations and occasions.

Recipes:

According to neworleans.com, traditional kings cake is “A blend of coffee cake and cinnamon roll, king cake is usually iced in yellow, green and purple”.

I wanted to make this celebratory cake because I have visited New Orleans on several occasions and had yet to try it. I also really enjoy baking when I need to switch creative endeavors.

Below you will find two recipes for this treat. Although the preparation and ingredients of each varies quite a bit, I really enjoyed both of the recipes.

Traditional King Cake

food.com/Kings Cake

Mardi Gras King Cake

food.com/mardi-gras-king-cake

Final thoughts

Through the ages and around the globe there have been several ancient seasonal celebrations and pre lent customs that have had a resounding impact on how Mardi Gras has transformed into the festival we know today. This was just a small sampling of a few of these celebrations, but it seems to me that every festival, whether it has been linked to seasonal changes, has a historical and/or religious origin, has one aspect in common. It brings together people from all walks of life and offers a sense of belonging for the groups associated with it.

I want to thank you for your continued support. I hope that you enjoyed this brief post! Stay safe and keep being awesome.