Vintage Mardi Gras Collectibles

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Mardi Gras is technically "Fat Tuesday" or "Shrove Tuesday," or the last day of the Carnival season (also spelled "Carnaval" or "Carnevale"). In Catholicism, the weeks-long festival of Carnival begins on the Christian holiday known as Epiphany,...
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Mardi Gras is technically "Fat Tuesday" or "Shrove Tuesday," or the last day of the Carnival season (also spelled "Carnaval" or "Carnevale"). In Catholicism, the weeks-long festival of Carnival begins on the Christian holiday known as Epiphany, or Three Kings Day, the day the wise men called Magi were believed to have visited the Christ child, also known as "The Twelfth Day of Christmas," on January 6. Carnival events happen every weekend until the last 3-12 days before Ash Wednesday, when the celebration frequency ramps up to daily. Lent, when Catholics start 40 days of penitence before Easter, begins on Ash Wednesday. Carnival is a time of indulging in rich, fatty foods, alcohol, revelry, and other desires; it's followed by Lent, a time of restraint, fasting, abstaining from sex, and repentance. It has been suggested that Mardi Gras evolved from hedonistic ancient Roman or pagan festivals that celebrated fertility and rebirth such as Saturnalia and Lupercalia, but scholars now question those associations. Anthropologists consider Carnival a "reversal ritual" in which social mores are suspended or turned upside down for a short time—the intent is to prove why such rules are needed. Carnival is thought to have originated around Venice, Italy, in the Middle Ages, but it was outlawed in the republic entirely in 1797, despite having spread by then across Europe and to North and Latin America. The Venetian Carnival traditions re-emerged quietly at private, artistic parties in the 19th century, and were only officially reinstated in 1979. Elaborate masks have always been an important part of Venetian Carnival; the anonymity allowed people to flout the normally unyielding rules of class hierarchy in the republic, particularly around attire. Many of the masks were based on stock characters from Commedia dell'arte such as Colombina, Pantalone, and Arlecchino (also known as "Harlequin"). Medieval Venetians got up to all sorts of debauchery during the festival:...
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