Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Viti · 06-10-2003, 04:08 PM

Quote:

No one I know comes to New Orleans for the architechture and culture

Well, although I partied too...I am a geek and totally got into the history and culture

Jewel · 06-10-2003, 04:21 PM

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Originally posted by VTboy
Mardi Gras is intended as a Christian Holiday where people could feast because starting the next day on Ash Wednesday there would be weeks of fasting. This fasting would last untill easter.

This sex and and such ruins the meaning of the holiday.

Aside from the your argument being irrelavent (in CSS anyway, you can argue the morality of it all in the appropriate fora)-- laws should not be implemented with religious piety in mind -- a lot more is given up for lent than just food.

Accrding to this website

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The history of a Mardi Gras celebration existed many years before Europeans came to the New World. Some time in the Second Century, during mid-February (usually February 15 according to the Julian calendar), Ancient Romans would observe what they called the Lupercalia, a circus-type festival which was, in many respects, quite similar to the present day Mardi Gras. This festival honored the Roman deity, Lupercus, a pastoral God associated with Faunus or the Satyr. Although Lupercus is derived from the Latin Lupus (meaning "wolf"), the original meaning of the word as it applies to Roman religion has become obscured over the passage of time.

When Christianity arrived in Rome, the dignitaries of the early Church decided it would be more prudent to incorporate certain aspects of such rituals into the new faith rather than attempt to abolish them altogether. This granted a Christian interpretation to the ancient custom and the Carnival became a time of abandon and merriment which peceded the Lenten period (a symbolic Christian pentinence of 40 days commencing on Ash Wednesday and ending at Easter). During this time, there would be feasting which lasted several days and participants would indulge in voluntary madness by donning masks, clothing themselves in the likeness of spectres and generally giving themselves up to Bacchus and Venus. All aspects of pleasure were considered to be allowable during the Carnival celebration and today's modern festivites are thought by some to be more reminiscent of the Roman Saturnalia rather than Lupercalia, or be linked to even earlier Pagan festivals.

The police are more than welcome to arrest people for lewdness (within the limits of the law, of course), but I suspect they have better things to do like catch dangerous criminals. With the amount of people that flood New Orleans during Mardi Gras, the police need to focus on what is really important -- keeping the city safe.

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edited to add:

Looking through this thread, I think it would be more suited to Misc. Disc....

SLD · 06-10-2003, 06:13 PM

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Originally posted by ex-xian

Did you notice this part?

Copies "made their way" into the hands of local evangelical churches. I'm imagining these pastors meeting in disguises to hand out copies to one another. And the pastors' penises "made their way" into their hands after viewing it. [/B]

ROTFLMAO

All of these pious "Jimmy Swaggart" wannabes watching this video over and over to figure out exactly what sin is being committed.

I wonder if Swaggart got a copy of it? Wanna take a bet on how long Penthouse publishes parts of it? It'll probably end up on the web attached to some porn email we get in the next week or so.

SLD

ju'iblex · 06-10-2003, 06:48 PM

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Originally posted by Jacey
No one I know comes to New Orleans for the architechture and culture...........

my sister did....

PopeInTheWoods · 06-12-2003, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jacey
No one I know comes to New Orleans for the architechture and culture...........

My wife and I did, as well as for the food and nightlife. We toured cemetaries and architecturally significant neighborhoods and buildings, visited the D-Day Museum, ate well, and enjoyed the drinks, music, and other revelers (this wasn't during Mardi Gras), basically had a blast without engaging in any (public

) lewdness.

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NO knows this. The city rakes in tons of money with the convention center, and lots of corporations and such hold meetings/conventions etc down here. Guess why that is.

The warm winter weather, great food, music, many attractions/distractions, and the chicks with dicks?

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I have a problem understanding why this is such a big deal, because one street over on Dauphine, you don't see any of what happens on Bourbon.

Agreed. Bourbon Street is mainly occupied by adult-oriented establishments, but the other 99+% of the city is basically a normal city.

Andy

Jacey · 06-12-2003, 11:29 AM

After writing that I pretty much remembered that the type of people I associate with, well, aren't all that indicative of society at large.

I still think it's funny that a place like Bourbon St exists in a city with so many churches..........*sigh*

Corwin · 06-12-2003, 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by VTboy
Mardi Gras is intended as a Christian Holiday where people could feast because starting the next day on Ash Wednesday there would be weeks of fasting. This fasting would last untill easter.

This sex and and such ruins the meaning of the holiday.

Wrong, wrong, wrong and WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!

Mardi Gras is Carnival. (French colony, french name.) The original holiday was celebrated all over Europe as a celebration before Lent.

Lent is 40 days of prayer, fasting and meditation. In short, unfun stuff.

So, to make it work... (and to incorporate pagan traditions such as the Saturnalia into Christianity) the Church essentially turned a blind eye to the celebration... Carnival is the english approximation of the original latin name... Carne Vale. (Translates as 'the putting away of the flesh.') To be blunt, it was a week long drunken orgy. Traditions include public nudity, prostitution, and celebrations including such wonders as taking men who's wives were known to have been unfaithful and parading them around town on a bed with antlers tied to their head. (The horns of a cuckold.) THIS is where the tradition comes from.

Mardi Gras is about sex and food. Lust, Gluttony and Drunkenness. If you don't like it, stay out of Nawleans.... don't try to sanatize it.... disneyfication is for ignorant prudes.

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06-12-2003, 11:29 AM	#16
Jacey Banned Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: the gulag Posts: 3,043	After writing that I pretty much remembered that the type of people I associate with, well, aren't all that indicative of society at large. I still think it's funny that a place like Bourbon St exists in a city with so many churches..........sigh

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