The beads are strung, the costumes are feathered and the king cakes are baking. San Diego’s Mardi Gras celebration gets under way in the Gaslamp Quarter on Feb. 17. The annual tradition has been held downtown for more than 20 years, turning into a bigger party every year.
“It’s a big celebration,” said Laurel McFarlane, 43, an Eastlake resident whose company promotes San Diego’s Mardi Gras celebration, along with other events around the county. “The costuming is out of this world … there’s a lot to look at.”
McFarlane says about 40,000 people are expected to show up for the spectacle of the parade and the music, which this year is headlined by DJ Snoopadelic, better known as Snoop Dogg.
Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, can trace its origins at least back to medieval Europe. Despite its hedonistic reputation,
Mardi Gras started life as a Catholic feast day, a time of wretched excess that takes place after the twelfth night of Christmas and before Lent’s privations begin on Ash Wednesday. According to some schools of thought, Mardi Gras, like Valentine’s Day, has roots in Lupercalia, an ancient pagan fertility tradition that celebrated the beginning of spring.
The name Fat Tuesday comes from the practice of slaughtering a fatted calf for the feasting. The party season is also called Carnival, or Carneval, which comes from the phrase carne vale, or “farewell to the flesh.”
It first came to the United States at the end of the 17th century when a French-Canadian explorer landed at a plot of land not far from New Orleans on Mardi Gras Eve, naming the outcropping Pointe du Mardi Gras as a result.
San Diego’s Mardi Gras celebrants don’t slaughter any fatted calves. Instead, the party has capoeira (Brazilian martial arts)and lowriders as well as music and dancing, making Mardi Gras in the Gaslamp a very Southern California experience.
“I love it,” said McFarlane, who has been with the event since it began more than two decades ago. “You hope you can find what you love in your life, and I’m lucky enough to do it. Some days it’s work, but for the most part you wake up totally excited to go to work.”
Tickets for San Diego Mardi Gras start at $35. For more information, go to sdmardigras.com.
