What is the significance of mardi gras masks

In noting the difference between showing masks at crafts fairs elsewhere and at the Mask Market, Oregon mask maker Diane Trapp says that those who run other crafts fairs often don't seem to understand the significance of masks, whereas New Orleans "gets it" Trapp If the wearing of masks on Mardi Gras occasions is hardly universal and the practice varies, dependent on levels and kinds of participation in the festival, the use of masks at Mardi Gras is widespread, and it is not difficult to see how the mask becomes of symbolic significance such that commentators might offhandedly want to present it as the central element.

Transformation of identity is a central element in Carnival, and disguising the face is a key method of transforming identity. Also, Mardi Gras krewes have enjoyed maintaining an element of secrecy membership in groups may be kept secret; so may the identity of the kings of certain groups, for example, and members of Mardi Gras Indian groups keep their costumes secret until Mardi Gras morning , and a mask certainly helps to maintain such secrecy, enabling people to appear in public without revealing who they are, possibly performing actions with which they would not want personally to be identified.

Masks, along with the beads which are thrown from floats at Mardi Gras parades, become staples of the wares sold by the New Orleans shops which cater to tourists seeking souvenirs characteristic of the Crescent City and its iconic Mardi Gras occasion.

Cardboard decorations shaped to look like masks and fashioned in the traditional Mardi Gras colors or various plastic masks may be an element in locals' Mardi Gras displays in homes, on doors, or on French Quarter balconies; or New Orleans businesses may similarly put up mask-evoking decorations Figure 1. Folklorists, anthropologists and historians who have commented on New Orleans Mardi Gras have in fact paid little attention to the ethnography of the mask.

Who dons a mask, when and exactly why they do so, how people obtain masks and exactly how they think of them are questions that have largely gone unaddressed, possibly because the basic reasons for wearing masks seem obvious.

Indeed, the relatively small amount of attention that has been given to Louisiana Mardi Gras masks has been given to those used for the country form of the celebration maintained by the Cajuns and Creoles who live well west of the Big Easy. Ronnie Roshto has written specifically about the Cajun mask makers Georgie and Allen Manuel , while Carl Lindahl and Carolyn Ware take a broader view, looking at masks and over a half dozen mask makers in the Cajun communities of Basile and Tee Mamou. Lindahl and Ware consider such issues as how masks enable participants to assume roles, such as that of the sauvage and the beggar the mask, they say, confers "the freedom.

Commentators on Cajun Mardi Gras as a whole have sometimes made observations about the masks. For example, Barry Ancelet comments generally on the use of masks, noting that they confer anonymity, "provide an opportunity to shed inhibitions and to take on roles for the day" 2.

They may also, he says, "preserve ancient parodies. Carolyn Ware notes that some communities require hand-made masks for their Mardi Gras "runs," stimulating a turn toward mask-making by local women.

Ware also writes of women running Mardi Gras as having somewhat different requirements for their masks than do the men for example, the more traditional masks made of painted wire screen mesh were thought by women to be too uncomfortable, leading to needlepoint masks. According to Ware, mask styles differ by community also "The lavish decoration of a typical Tee Mamou mask.

The emphasis in the literature, although social aspects of masking have not been ignored, has been upon masks as folk objects, as artifacts, and upon mask makers Lindahl and Ware was actually published as part of a series on folk art and folk artists, a fact which probably shaped the perspectives taken by these authors. The New Orleans Mardi Gras Mask Market, though an event of some local significance and some significance in the mask making community Oregon mask maker Monica Roxburgh says there is "nothing else like it," calling it "unique" [] , is a minor element in the larger festival season of Carnival.

The Market does, however, provide a point of focus for the symbolic connection between Mardi Gras and masks, and the placement of an organized mask sale within the Mardi Gras time frame not only suggests that symbolic connection but provides another event, in addition to parades, parties and processions, which is part of the celebration.

To look at it does add to our knowledge of the complexity of ways in which people participate in Mardi Gras, then. And it can serve as a focus for considering the mask as artifact within the New Orleans context of artists and craftspeople who fashion masks and whose aesthetics, techniques, styles and perspectives differ considerably from those who make masks for the Cajun form of the celebration. Stark died in , and it is impossible to now establish his precise motives, but evidently he sought to increase the possibilities for making New Orleans masks known and for marketing them.

Stark, who was among other things a Baptist minister and a fixture of the French Quarter scene, had a penchant for activism and organizing and was the founder of the Head Clinic, which he established to provide services to the hippies who were then filling the Quarter. During the world's fair he operated a shop called the Exposed Flea, just outside the fair's perimeter, and later with a young business partner, Ann Guccione, and others he owned a mask shop in the French Quarter, the Little Shop of Fantasy.

Earlier he had been part of the group of Quarter bohemians who gravitated around Preservation Hall, where he worked the door, and he operated a Bourbon Street shop that sold sandals and other items. Clevenger got him started on making masks most of what was available at the time were cheap imports, and she saw the possibilities for locally produced masks , and he got into the craft, bringing to it his aesthetic sense and his manual skills. The French Market today regularly produces various events held on its site which aim to draw people to the place and to serve as a means of promoting its presence and its associated merchants, but the Mask Market suggested by Stark was one of the first such events attempted.

Stark provided the staff to run the event as well as the idea of having it, and for years the Mask Market was held in the Dutch Alley area of the French Market which Stark suggested as being, at the time, underused , although more recently it has been shifted to the Farmers Market area, near the current Flea Market. In earlier years as many as twenty-five or thirty vendors attended, although in recent times the number has been closer to fourteen or fifteen.

Many vendors, who are usually the mask makers themselves, are from the New Orleans area, although the Mask Market attracts vendors from all over the country. Although Stark passed away and the Mask Makers Guild has ceased to be active, 5 the French Market has continued to produce the Mask Market as an annual event. It stretches over several days, over the weekend just before Mardi Gras, with Saturday being its most active day, according to Rosalind McCorkle , the French Market official who has run the Mask Market in recent years.

Mask makers apply to be included, submitting photographs of their work, and the French Market charges each included vendor a fee and supplies signage and a set-up which includes a table with skirting and chairs as well as electricity. Because the Mask Market is more than just a sale but a French Market event, the French Market also arranges for concurrent musical performances; the aim is to present music which is associated with Mardi Gras and New Orleans, notably that performed by Mardi Gras Indian groups and brass bands.

March 4 turned out to be a rainy day, slowing down the market's progress, but on the morning of the 4th a line of nearly twenty white marquees had been set up figures 2, 3 , stretching across the Mask Market area in the open space between the French Market structure and French Market Place, beyond which are a number of permanent businesses.

Some vendors used wire racks on which masks could be hung; others had free-standing face-like forms on which masks could be fitted Figure 5. The marquees provided some protection from the intermittent rain, although gusts of wind accompanying the wet weather added a complication to the displaying of masks, which tended to be caught by the breezes if so placed. The winds also taxed the canvas sides of the marquees, and individual mask makers were rueful if philosophical about the weather.

According to mask maker Carl Trapani of Metairie , Fridays of the market tend to be "mellow," Saturdays the busiest, Sundays a mixture of mellow and busy; then on Monday mask buyers tend to become slightly frantic as they rush to make purchases that have been put off.

In the inclement weather affected the progress of the Mask Market, however. On March 5, strong thunder storms swept through New Orleans. Although the earlier hours of the market produced customers, the arriving storms emptied the area of tourists and others, and Saturday proved to be a poor day for the mask vendors, some of whom abandoned their stalls.

It was not until Sunday, the 6th, that fine weather, if a little colder with some wind, dawned, and the market came alive with visitors looking at and for masks.

The French Quarter was, in general, humming with Mardi Gras visitors, and the energy that people and the Mardi Gras spirit generate was evident. In addition to filling eateries, a variety of shops, the streets, and Jackson Square with its psychics and palm and tarot readers much in evidence people thronged to the French Market and the Farmers Market area with its popular Flea Market and to the nearby Mask Market itself.

The marquees of the mask makers seemed to attract considerable attention and a number of people seemed to be interested in purchasing masks, trying them on and seeking information and advice from the vendors.

The music stage had been set up beyond the actual Mask Market area, but the music produced by a brass band at the time of the author's visit was sufficiently loud to permeate both the Mask Market and Flea Market. The Mask Market displayed a combination, then, of festival, commercial venue, and art and craft exhibition, tied into the Mardi Gras occasion. Focusing on the Mask Market does offer an opportunity for looking at the mask makers of New Orleans and those mask craftspeople who come to New Orleans for the occasion, for whom Mardi Gras usually does not exist in their home territories and to consider their work at least briefly.

Whereas the tradition of painted screen masks evidently goes back to the nineteenth century Lindahl and Ware , 34; the oldest surviving mask they identify and depict was made around , the contemporary mask making tradition in New Orleans has its roots no further back than the mids although of course the use of masks for New Orleans Carnival is much older, and some New Orleanians made their own masks in times past, although little published information about this is currently available. It was then that Mike Stark began making masks and probably he had no knowledge of Cajun or other wire screen masks.

He was aided by the availability of the glue gun which made decorating, previously requiring sewing abilities, easier; he employed the material used medically for making casts, a sort of gauze which will harden when wet and shaped, for his basic shapes , and he particularly enjoyed using feathers for decoration. Probably he was influenced by theatrical and operatic masks he also did some theatrical costuming and made masks for theatrical productions , and those influences certainly have been important to mask makers generally.

Portland mask maker Monica Roxburgh cites theatrical influences, as well as fantasy-inspired ones, while another Portland maker, Diane Trapp , speaks of drawing her animal-inspired masks and other ideas from her involvement in the theatre she also cites the influence of Pacific Northwest Native American masks and a local preponderance of vampire and goth interest and aesthetics. The influence of the well-known and highly-regarded Carnival masks of Venice has also been a factor.

Involvement in mask making in New Orleans may stem from a larger involvement in the Carnival experience or even from generational participation in mask making or in other aspects of Carnival. For example, New Orleans native Carl Trapani cites his mother's love of Carnival as the ultimate origin for his mask making activities.

She loved taking him and other kids to Carnival parades and taught him, he says, how to enjoy the season. His more immediate influence came later, in , when a cousin, who was going to a Mardi Gras ball, told Trapani that he needed a mask. Being a "creative person, into costuming," Trapani offered to make one, which he did.

Then he found that he "couldn't make just one" and continued to produce more, and he has appeared at the Mask Market for a number of years, though he also works with Mardi Gras krewes on their masks. He himself rides in the suburban krewe of Caesar and has helped to modify their krewe masks, and he also belongs to a group that marches with Krewe du Vieux and whose headdresses he works on.

Trapani's talent resides primarily in his abilities as a decorator of masks, and he starts with a basic, pre-made plastic mask that he then proceeds to decorate with various materials, going for "affordable" rather than expensive.

He is also a talented salesman in the past he has worked in corporate sales , and he enjoys working with customers at the Mask Market to help them find a mask in the context of a total Mardi Gras look. He will ask visitors if they're looking for a costume, and he will have accessories which can complement a mask. He can help someone to dress for Mardi Gras from proverbial head to toe, trying to work with who they see themselves as some, unsurprisingly, are more "daring" than others.

For these shipbuilders , sailors, and boat rowers, masquerade masks represented absence of rules, freedom of action , and freedom of the self. After spending their days risking their lives working on the Eastern trade routes of the Mediterranean Sea, these servants were able to attend the parades without fear of being identified and punished. Venetians spent their time at the festival participating in activities like gambling, clandestine affairs, political assassination, and dancing and partying the night away.

During this Venetian carnival, festival goers wore masks of all shapes and sizes, but one of the most common masks was Colombina , or the Colombine. In many ways Mardi Gras mimics this Venetian festival, especially with its important tradition of wearing masks. At these public gatherings and parades, masquerade masks allowed citizens to remain anonymous and blend in with figures of authority in the city, such as the clergy and nobility.

Approximately million pounds of sugar cane were produced by Louisiana plantations per year during the s. Laura Plantation , a massive property in Louisiana spanning 12, acres, was a famous sugar farm where hundreds of enslaved African Americans would be born and die, or they would be acquired and sold.

While the aristocrats took residency in townhouses of the French Quarter and mansions of the Garden District, the poor plantation workers of the lower class found themselves begging for food and resources. Mardi Gras enabled members of these social classes to mask themselves and come together singing, dancing, dressing up, and blending as one.

During the 19 th century in New Orleans, there was segregation of Mardi Gras krewes that sought to reinforce the white supremacy, nobility, and discrimination of the racialized South. White citizens publicly opposed the postbellum Reconstruction era, protesting against rights extended to Blacks and enfranchised African American men.

As a way of escaping exclusionary practices and segregation at parades, groups of African American men dressed up in Native American costumes, paying tribute to the Native Americans who protected and took in runaway slaves.

In the old day, the Indians were violent. Indians would meet on Mardi Gras; it was a day to settle scores. Failure to wear a mask while riding on a float would even result in members of the krewe getting fired, especially from the famous Endymion and Zulu parades of the city.

Today, many of the Mardi Gras masquerade masks worn closely resemble those of the Carnival of Venice. Originally the use of masks was considered a diversion for poor people and the reputation of especially women who wore masks during Mardi Gras was in question. Today the wearing of Masks in Mardi Gras is widely practiced by all. The Mardi Gras mask and costume allow the wearer to transcend his or her daily life in a mass of others who are doing the same thing.

The transcendence is the magic and power of the Mardi Gras celebration.