Mardi Gras: Can it be understood and do we care if it is?

The kings of King Cake (the Haydel family)

Editor’s Note: The following series “Get to Know Mardi Gras!” is a week-long series curated by Gabriela Taras as a part of the Digital Research Internship Program in partnership with ViaNolaVie. The DRI Program is a Newcomb Insitute technology initiative for undergraduate students combining technology skillsets, feminist leadership, and the digital humanities. This year Mardi Gras lands on February the 25th. So, this curation is dedicated to Mardi Gras shenanigans in New Orleans. This curation will help you become familiar with the traditions, culture, and history that have made Mardi Gras what it is today & how it shaped our city!

This next curation gives a brief history of Mardi Gras with explanations on why floats throw doubloons and the burning question: why is there a plastic baby in the King Cake & what does it mean?! Read this article originally published on Jan. 19, 2016 to find out more!

It’s positively medieval. South Louisiana traditions – most of them, in fact – are firmly rooted in old European medieval customs that followed the early settlers to la belle Louisiane and remain intact to this day. The Mardi Gras King Cake is one of those. We all recognize the wreath-shaped sweet bread with the purple, green and gold sugar sprinkled liberally all over the top. In addition to cream cheese, peach, cherry or apple preserves, stuffed somewhere inside the delicious bread is a little plastic baby. Odd and enigmatic, just like everything else about our culture, this gaudy, frivolous pastry has a centuries-old story to tell.

The season for King Cake starts on Twelfth Night (the twelfth day after Christmas), and lasts through Mardi Gras Day. During this time, Haydel’s Bakery on Jefferson Highway in New Orleans will likely bake more than 60,000 king cakes. New Orleans has always been the heart of  king cake production in Louisiana and Haydel’s one of the premier king cake bakers.

The Mardi Gras king cake is more accurately known as the kings’ cake. It is baked to honor the gifts of the Magi, the three kings who gave gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus on the twelfth night (the Epiphany) after his birth. In some Mediterranean cultures, it became custom during the Middle Ages to give gifts on Twelfth Night to children, as did the three kings.

We all know those buckets at Mardi Gras asking for Doubloons!

Church pageants involving equestrians, ornately costumed as the Magi (masking for Mardi Gras!), paraded (Mardi Gras parades!) through the of streets of medieval Franceanywhere there was a sizable church or cathedral. The procession ended at the steps of the cathedral as the celebrants presented their gifts (Mardi Gras beads!) at the Christmas crib.

Families celebrated the last day of Christmastide by baking a kings’ cake to represent the Magi. A coin (Mardi Gras doubloons!) was placed inside the cake and the person who received the piece of cake with the coin was declared “king.” The custom was later expanded to include a bean and a pea, making the respective finders “king” and “queen.” In medievalFrance the lucky coin finder was expected to make a contribution to the education of an underprivileged child or some other worthy cause.

The French kings’ cake tradition was brought to New Orleans and as the tradition evolved, it was not unusual to substitute the coin with a tiny toy baby, which may represent the Christ child. Whatever the object may be, the one to receive this piece is bestowed with both an honor and a responsibility.

You get the baby, you buy the next King Cake!

Modern traditions hold that the person who receives the cake piece with the baby is required to buy a kings’ cake for the next gathering, and so on throughout the season. (I really like the modern tradition.)

It’s true that Mardi Gras can be a last debauchery for some before the penance of Lent. But it is so much more. Those who know our history, tradition and custom know that to partake in the kings’ cake, Mardi Gras balls and parades is to dance with the ghosts of our forbears. When we eat our kings’ cake, we eat with our ancestors. If you know us, you know this: our revelry is ancient and intense, unlike any other.

Source–The Haydel’s Bakery history scroll by Monsignor Henry C. Bezou, included in every king cake shipment.

This information was cross-posted from lanote.org, a NolaVie content partner.