Part I: Choosing a name

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 small, despite the popularity of the holiday.  The central reason for this,  is that a lot of people 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.

 If there are 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.

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.

Part II:

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.

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.

  There are primarily 4 different styles of Mardi Gras 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.

Near the end of the days of the 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. 

So Mardi Gras is a festival which celebrates the on set of the Spring planting season. 

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 the Mardi Gras in New Orleans (begun around 1732).

Part III:  Deciding what Kind of Non-profit to be

Part IV: Your first board meeting 

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