Courir de Mardi Gras

Courir de Mardi Gras (Mardi Gras Run)
Masked riders in Mamou
Type	Local, cultural, Catholic, Cajun
Significance	Celebration prior to fasting season of Lent
Celebrations	Rural tradition, parties
Date	Mardi Gras, Tuesday before Ash Wednesday
2016 date	February 9
2017 date	February 28
2018 date	February 12
2019 date	March 5
Frequency	annual
Related to	Mardi Gras

The Courir de Mardi Gras (Louisiana French pronunciation: [kuɾiɾ d maɾdi ɡɾa] French pronunciation: ​[kuʁiʁ də maʁdi ɡʁa]) is a traditional Mardi Gras event held in many Cajun communities of south Louisiana on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. Courir de Mardi Gras is Cajun French for "Fat Tuesday Run". The rural Mardi Gras celebration is based on early begging rituals, similar to those still celebrated by mummers, wassailers and celebrants of Halloween. As Mardi Gras is the celebration of the final day before Lent, celebrants drink and eat heavily, and also dress in specialized costumes, ostensibly to protect their identities. Popular practices include wearing masks, capuchons, and costumes, overturning social conventions, dancing, drinking alcohol, begging, feasting, whipping, etc. Because of violent activities associated with the Ku Klux Klan, Louisiana has a state law prohibiting the wearing of hoods and masks in public. Mardi Gras is one of the few occasions when exceptions are allowed, as are Halloween celebrations and religious observances. Two HBO series (the crime drama True Detective and the post Hurricane Katrina themed Treme) make reference to the tradition.

Barry Ancelet, Cajun historian and head of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Folklore Department, has explained the origin of the Courir as being in rural medieval France: