New Orleans may be the city most synonymous with Mardi Gras revelry, but even Chattanooga finds ways to celebrate Carnival.
Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday in French. It's a day for people to indulge in their favorite foods and fun before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, which marks the start of 40 days of fasting in preparation for Easter.
Before the fasting, there is feasting, along with street parties that include high-stepping parades, dancing, bead-throwing, horn-blowing and masquerades.
The colors of Mardi Gras - purple for justice, green for faith and gold for power - show up in everything from masks to beads to king cakes. Here's an overview of some of the common symbols and where to find them.
Local Mardi Gras events
Several local events are scheduled to celebrate Mardi Gras.› Mardi Gras Gala: 7-11 p.m. Friday at Bessie Smith Cultural Center, 200 E. M.L. King Blvd. The event to benefit Chambliss Center for Children includes a Dixieland jazz band, dancing and the crowning of a king and queen. $70 individuals, $120 couples. www.chamblisscenter.org/events/› Mardi Gras masquerade: 6 p.m. pre-party, 7 p.m. dinner Saturday at Chattanooga Golf and Country Club, 1511 Riverview Road. Chattanooga Bach Choir’s annual fundraiser has a “Bach to Broadway” theme. The Nancy Westmoreland Group, formerly known as the Booker T. Scruggs Ensemble, will provide music. Tickets are $100. 423-902-9191.› Mardi Gras on Station Street: 6 p.m. Saturday (bar crawl begins) and 9 p.m. concert at Revelry Room, 41 Station St. A $10 wristband, sold at each venue, gets the wearer into all bar-crawl stops on Station Street and the show at Revelry Room by Diamond Dogs, a David Bowie tribute band. Each pub on the crawl will have its own activity as well. The first 50 guests at each place receive free beads and/or masks. The bar crawl is open to ages 21 and older; the concert is for ages 18 and older with valid ID. 423-805-3247.› Mardi Gras Ball: 8:30 p.m.-1 a.m. Saturday at Chattanooga Convention Center, Ballroom H, 1150 Carter St. The Chattanooga Chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women hosts this events for its Reach to the Future scholarship fund for local high-school seniors. Tickets are $55 each and tax-deductible. 423-698-0029.› Mardi Gras Brunch: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday at Walden Club, 633 Chestnut St. Purple Lady Sonia Young is hosting this benefit for the McKamey Animal Center. Among the 15 New Orleans-inspired dishes are Chicken and Andouille Gumbo, Pecan-Crusted Gulf Fish over Red Beans and Rice, crab cakes with Creole remoulade, Ponchatoula Strawberry Shortcake and Bananas Foster Flambe. There will be live music, door prizes and cash bar. Tickets are $50. Reservations are required by Tuesday; call 423-305-6507.
KING CAKE
King cakes are tied to Twelfth Night, the day Mardi Gras season begins, according to the website mardi grasneworleans.com. It's the night before Epiphany, 12 days after Christmas when the Magi, often called the Three Kings, came to visit the Christ Child.
King cake is so symbolic of the Mardi Gras tradition that some people believe eating it outside of Carnival season causes rain on Mardi Gras day.
King cakes are oval-shaped and decorated in purple, green and gold. These colors were chosen to represent a jeweled crown such as the Wise Men who visited the Christ Child might have worn.
King cakes went on shelves at Rembrandt's Coffee House on Jan. 6 - and were gone within two hours.
"It was crazy," says marketing director Heather Lynn Chandler.
The bakery will continue making them until Mardi Gras season ends Feb. 13. Chandler encourages buyers to order large cakes in advance if they want to make sure one is available.
Chandler says the Mardi Gras/Valentine's Day season is second only to Christmas as the busiest time of year.
"We definitely have a following of people who get excited about king cakes even before they go on sale," she says. "We have people calling and asking to pay before we start making them."
Traditionally, a tiny, plastic baby figure is baked into a king cake. The person who receives the baby in his or her slice hosts the next king cake party. Folklore also holds that the baby brings good luck in the coming year.
Fearing the potential health hazards of including the baby inside the cake, Rembrandt's and several other local stores place the baby beside the cake instead.
Rembrandt's mini cakes, which don't include the baby, sell for $4.25 each plus tax and serve one or two people. The classic king cake serves 12 to 14 and costs $17.50 plus tax.
The mini cakes are about the size of a doughnut, but instead of a hole, the pastry is full of smooth cinnamon cream.
King cakes go fast at Koch's Bakery too, says Rosemary Brusnahan, assistant manager. It's popular because it's an authentic recipe from a New Orleans bakery, she says.
The bakery started making king cakes on Jan. 16, but people started ordering the cakes a month in advance, she says.
Walmart on Cummings Highway says it won't set out king cakes until closer to Mardi Gras, though the stores will accept earlier orders. A traditional Mardi Gras quarter-sheet cake sells for $19. A quarter-sheet cake with a mask on it is $24.
ZULU COCONUTS
Blue Orleans co-owner Cherita Bloodwirth Adams says her restaurant won't have king cake this year because Mardi Gras falls the day before Valentine's Day, an already busy time at the restaurant.
Adams, who is from New Orleans, says instead she'll sell a limited number of Mardi Gras Zulu coconuts.
Blacks began the Zulu parade because they weren't initially allowed in the main Mardi Gras parade, says Adams. The Zulu coconut parade became one of the most popular events during carnival, she explains.
"It's a big deal to get a coconut. Only a few are given out, and to get one means you're pretty special, according to Mardi Gras tradition," she says.
"You can't buy it. They're handed out. You have to be in New Orleans and catch the Zulu parade to get one."
That part of the tradition doesn't hold here. In Chattanooga, they're for sale. Adams says she'll sell the coconuts at Blue Orleans for $20. They are hand-painted by her sister, artist Marcia Bloodwirth.
MASKS
Masks, another Mardi Gras tradition, add mystery to the celebration. People initially wore masks because it allowed them to escape society and class constraints. When wearing a mask, a person could be whomever they wanted to be uninhibited by race, age or socioeconomic status.
Curt Hodge of Flowers by Gil & Curt creates fantasy masks for friends and the Bach Choir's Mardi Gras King and Queen. The masks are made on papier-mache bases with a variety of finishing flourishes. This year's masks reflect the gala's Broadway theme, "Bach to Broadway."
BEADS
There have to be bead necklaces at Mardi Gras. People throw them from floats during parades. Locally, they are sold in abundance at stores like Party City.
The first Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans happened in the 1830s, but people didn't start throwing beads from floats until almost a century later. The tradition was born in the 1920s, when people in the Rex parade started throwing inexpensive handmade glass necklaces (the glass versions have since been replaced by plastic). The colorful beads are memorable souvenirs.
Contact Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.