30-04-2025
Louisiana museum celebrates women's role in Mardi Gras
NEW ORLEANS, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — Women who played an essential role in making Mardi Gras what it is are finally being honored for their contributions.
Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser and the Louisiana State Museum announce the opening of Pioneers of Women's Carnival. The exhibition at the Presbytère on Jackson Square celebrates the contributions of women who have helped shape Mardi Gras into the cultural experience it is today.
While there are Mardi Gras celebrations worldwide, the most significant ones arguably take place in Louisiana.
Mardi Gras terminology and what it means
Historically, Mardi Gras is the culmination of carnival. Loosely translated as 'festival of flesh,' carnival is a season lasting up to two months and has roots as far back as the Roman Empire. Carnival was a time with fewer rules and lower inhibitions. For the duration, people could do things that were not typically socially acceptable. When the Roman Empire adopted Christianity, the concept of carnival was paired with Lent, a 40-day period of fasting and self-denial in imitation of Jesus Christ's fasting in the wilderness. The carnival period, with its decreased rules, culminated with one last day of celebration, Mardi Gras, followed by a period of fasting, Lent.
In Louisiana, the period of parades and celebrations that lead up to Mardi Gras still exists and was largely influenced by women.
The first all-women's krewes were short-lived. The original, Les Mystérieuses, was formed in 1896 and disbanded after hosting two Carnival balls. The Butterflies, Mittens, and Empyreans all formed and dissolved before 1920.
A featured part of the exhibition concentrates on Aminthe Laudumiey Nungesser, Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser's great aunt, who pushed for women's inclusion and founded the Krew of Iris in 1917 and the Krew of Venus, the first parading women's organization, in 1940. Iris is the oldest women's Carnival Krewe today, and the largest of any New Orleans krewe, while Venus disbanded in 1992.
The work of those early groups still resonates today, and there has been a resurgence of all-women's krewes in the past 25 years. The Krewe of Muses, Femme Fatale, Athena, and others were founded in the last quarter-century.
The Pioneers of Women's Carnival will feature costumes and costume designs, photographs, parade throws, and ball favors. The exhibit opens to the public on Friday, May 9, at the Presbytère and will run through Summer 2026.
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