Saints Vs. Sinners

One cannot help but to admit it: Mardi Gras is an orgy of sin. It is a time when the mundane is thrown aside, and disassociating yourself from reality is as simple as slipping on a mask. When one revels in the pure joy of excess, the freedom in drunken pleasures and licentious exploits. Colorful beads dangle from the fingers of those who gaze from their balconies at the vibrant tableau that greets their downcast eyes. Streets seething with hordes of costumed dancers, stumbling and careening down the cobble stones. Floats and flashing lights hovering just around the corner as you hear the bold music of the marching bands that herald the way. Nothing is too obscene, and the city breathes with a life of its own, a breath that only lasts that one week when all the rules are cast aside. Everything that Mardi Gras represents is in direct violation of what the Puritans believe in. Puritans were staunchly opposed to anything that was excessive, and excess is the foundation of what Mardi Gras is based on. The holiday has origins that date back to the to time of the Romans, and in fact was once a pagan festival known as Lupercalia. When Christianity became the dominant religion, the early leaders knew they could not dissuade the masses from partaking in this ritual festival. So, they incorporated it into their own religion by introducing Mardi Gras as the brief season of reckless abandonment and raucous merrymaking before the strict penance of Lent. For that one week of debauchery, there are forty days of rigorous fasting and repenting. Perhaps that is the only comment and connection Mardi Gras has with Puritanism; a week of drunken chaos must be atoned for by the stringent rules of Lent. Puritans though that gluttony, dancing, and sexual carelessness were all sins, and Mardi Gras incorporates aspects of all these. Puritans were austere, dour people, whose ways naturally conflict with the flamboyant, carefree revelers of Mardi Gras. They believed in scrupulously abiding by the rules, and the one rule that Mardi Gras pagans adhere to is that there are no rules.