Image from My New 30 - Twelfth Night
Click on above link for a really great blog about the history of Mardi Gras in the U.S.
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It is believed that William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, or What You Will was written between 1601-1602 to celebrate the close of the Christmas season. The earliest known performance of this play was on Candlemas night, February 2, 1602, at Middle Temple Hall.
You do need a program to follow the various characters, especially that of Viola, who is a woman masquerading as a man, Cesario, who becomes a favorite of Orsino who makes him (her?) his page. Now it must be remembered that back in Shakespeare's day all the actors were male, so the role of Viola was really a man playing a woman pretending to be a man. Doesn't this part just scream out to be played by Johnny Depp? [ I can't wait for the day he decides to take the stage in this role. This is my Epiphany.]
So as with Shakespeare's play, revelers will begin on January 6, the Twelfth Night, to begin the, by my count, sixty-one days of dancing and drinking and complete self-indulgence leading up to Fat Tuesday, aptly named I am sure after all those many days of celebration.
There was a time in my life when I dreamed of going to New Orleans and being invited to one of the special balls and watching the parade from a perch high above the crowd. I wonder if those balls even exist today. I grew up in a community that was neither French nor Catholic, so Mardi Gras was something that happened in places far away. I can't claim distance any longer for here in St. Louis the Soulard Mardi Gras is a big event, but alas poor Yorick!, I fear my desire for celebration has ended long before the Eleventh Night. Laissez les bons temps rouler.
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Note: As a follow up to my previous post, Westward Ho. Shakespeare used this term in the Twelfth Night, spoken by Viola:
Then westward-ho:Grace and good wishes 'tend your ladyship!You'll nothing, madam, to my lord by me.
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