K.R.E.W.E. Center Advanced Learning Lab 

It's a question that continues to cross a lot of peoples minds.  Due to the success of New Orleans, LA- Mobile, AL- Tampa, FL- Galveston, TX- St. Louis, MO- Washington, D.C. and other cities across the country, a lot of people want to know how to start their own celebrations.

The success rate outside of Louisiana is still quite small, however, despite the popularity of the holiday.  The central reason for this,  is that a lot of people simply don't understand the meaning of the holiday, or even what they are celebrating.  If people don't understand why they are participating in something, it is going to be kind of hard to motivate them to give their time and money to it or to put together a celebration your city or town can get behind. There are those out there, who actually believe that the holiday has something to do with Satan, or the devil.

 If there are still natives of New Orleans, that still don't understand, why we celebrate Carnival, it is probably a safe bet, that those outside of the city and the state of Louisiana, don't as well.  After all, we are ground zero for Carnival, in the Western hemisphere.

As you can see, there are a lot of subtle details, you  must address, if you are going to take a shot and organize a Carnival Club. So let's get started on the major nuts and bolts of starting your own krewe and making it work.

Starting a Carnival Krewe or Club:

Basic 101 Part I: Know what you are celebrating!

It stands to reason, that anyone, who will want to participate in your organization, will sooner or later ask, the one burning question, "What is this all about?"  You are going to feel pretty silly, when you really don't know.  Worse yet, you are going to need plenty of luck, when you try recruiting members, or selling this to your Chambers of Commerce, or Police Chief, or the city council.

So let's really discuss, probably for the first time anywhere, with some crystal clarity, what the Carnival season is all about. In very short order, Carnival is a festival whose original purpose was to celebrates the on set of the Spring planting season. To give you a full brief we must get into the history of the holiday and see the evolvement into what it is today!

The first recorded, "Carnival", was the Egyptian feast of Osiris, an event marking the receding of the Nile's flood water.

In Europe, particularly Rome, during the middle days of the Roman Empire, celebrations were held to give thanks to Roman gods for life, harvest, victories in battles, and of course, fertility.  You must remember, that at the time of season Carnival is celebrated, it is fall.  During this season of the year it was customary to ask the gods for a good harvest in the coming spring, which was only a month away by their calendar. So, part of your answer, lies in the fact that, it is part of the coming spring ritual that is celebrated all over the world.

  There are primarily 4 different styles of Carnival celebrated through out the world. Our style of the celebration has it's origination in these pagan spring fertility rites.  Carnivale', as originally spoken in our root tongue, reached a peak of riotous dissipation with the Roman BACCHANALIA( this is our root style ) and Saturnalia. 

Pre-Christian, medieval, and modern carnivals share important features or themes. They celebrate the death of winter and the rebirth of nature, ultimately recommitting the individual to the spiritual and social codes of their culture. Ancient fertility rites, with their sacrifices to the gods, exemplify this commitment, as do the Christian Shrovetide plays. On the other hand, carnivals allow parody of, and offer temporary release from, social and religious constraints. For example, slaves were the equals of their masters during the Roman Saturnalia; the medieval feast of fools included a blasphemous mass; and during carnival masquerades, most if not all sexual and social taboos, were sometimes temporarily suspended.

  Spring is universally recognized as planting season and before that activity got under way, the Romans routinely celebrated and sacrificed to the gods and goddesses to bring about a good harvest. These pagan rituals were to politely put it, excessive in scope in debauchery. However, the Catholic church would soon put a halt to all but the mildest of infractions and excess.

Near the end of the days of the Roman empire, the Roman Catholic Church was rapidly gaining members and power, and was a voice that the empire could no longer totally ignore as had been the policy before. 

During the late period of the era, in what human history considers the Middle Ages, the Church attempted to control the celebrations. Popes sometimes even served as patrons, and the worst excesses were gradually eliminated, and carnival was assimilated into the Christian calendar, as a last festival, before the asceticism (the start) of Lent. 

Our style of the carnival tradition still flourishes in Belgium, Italy, France, and West Germany. In the Western Hemisphere, the principal carnivals are those in Rio de Janeiro (begun c.1840) and in New Orleans (begun around 1732). New Orleans is the most noted for it's Carnival festivities, but it was not the first to hold Carnival festival. That honor goes to Mobile, AL., which still holds true to the roots of the Mystic Organization and is still as, "clickish" as they were almost 200 years ago.

Carnival is the festival season, which begins on January 6th each season and ends on Mardi Gras Day.  Epiphany is the climax of the Christmas Season and the Twelve Days of Christmas, which are counted from December 25th until January 5th.  The day before Epiphany is the twelfth day of Christmas, and is sometimes called Twelfth Night, which is an occasion for feasting in some cultures. In some cultures, and the southern U.S., the baking of a special King's Cake is part of the festivities of Epiphany (a King's Cake is part of the observance of Mardi Gras in French Catholic culture of the Southern USA). 

So please remember, Carnival refers to the season, which lasts from 1/06 each year to Mardi Gras Day. The last day of the season is called, "Mardi Gras day" and this date moves from year to year, because of the method by which it is calculated. 

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