Mardi Gras Research Paper

LEI1010: Globalisation and the Experience Economy Assigment 1:New Orleans Mardi Gras

The aim of this paper is to critically present how the New Orleans Mardi Gras has developed from a religious celebration to a global media spectacle within the experience economy, presenting it from its origins to the contemporary Mardi Gras and its future as an event.
From a small Christian religious celebration to a sumptuous festival, Mardi Gras passed through a series of transformations due to the rising of globalisation and the experience economy. Mardi Gras, as known as Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday, is an annual Christian religious celebration which takes place before the beginning of Lent. It likely finds it roots thousands years ago …show more content…
In the late 1700s, the locals held specifil balls during the celebration that originated from France, due to the celebration being brought by a French explorer, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur De Bienville. Due to the French influence within the Mardi Gras celebration, the Spanish governors banned Mardi Gras in order to eliminate the French influence in the city. The festival later returned to the city by the early 1800s. As the tension between states increased during the first and the second World War and the resources went mainly towards the production of military equipment and funding the war, no parades were held between 1917-1918 and 1942-1945 (Hardy, 1998, p.22; 2000, p.120). As the tension between nation states arose again during the Korean War, where America was involved by supporting the southern part of Korea, the number of parades held during the celebration decreased slightly, from 25 parades in 1965 to 23 in 1970. Through a cooperation of public and private stakeholders, such as private businesses and governmental bodies, Mardi Gras has benefited through the creation of infrastructure and special regulations during the festival. While some special regulations had a positive impact towards the festival and its stakeholders, such as the restriction imposed on where can ladders be placed, the government also implemented a regulation that bans throwing back beads at floats. As throwing back beads to floats is part of the Mardi Gras tradition and celebration, this had a negative impact on the community. It can be a paradoxal regulation as the local authorities encourage the recycling of the beads by throwing them back, leading to confusion(Radziewicz,

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Research Paper On Mardi Gras