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View Full Version : Mardi Gras, Carnival & Lent



GeneChing
02-24-2020, 09:44 AM
We don't have a thread devoted to this, unless you count RickMatz annual Lenten Challenges, which ran from 2008 (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?50010-2008-Lenten-Challenge) to 2014 (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?67339-2014-Lenten-Challenge). That was a nice series, but Rick hasn't been 'round these parts for a year now. :(

And this is a sad way to start a thread devoted to this, but here goes.


Two killed by parade floats during Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans, officials say (https://abc7news.com/two-killed-by-float-during-mardi-gras-parades-in-new-orleans/5950701/?fbclid=IwAR1AtEyQo1kfMeWKcbuS5ZgeiRynyryWxhopHw5o YIVRXJJ8ae7S2xslJ3E)

According to officials, the remainder of the parade has been canceled.

Sunday, February 23, 2020 9:30AM

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana -- New Orleans is now mourning the death of two individuals who were fatally struck by parade floats as the city celebrates Mardi Gras.

On Saturday night, one person was killed during the Endymion parade after they were hit by float 13 near Canal and S. Galvez street.

It is unclear exactly what the individual was doing at the time of this incident.

Emergency personnel have asked the public to avoid this area of the parade route.


NOLA Ready #MardiGras

@nolaready
Emergency personnel are responding to an incident on the #Endymion route at Galvez. An individual was struck by a float and fatally injured. Please avoid this area of the parade route. ⚠️

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5:04 PM - Feb 22, 2020 · New Orleans, LA
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On Wednesday, another woman apparently tried to cross between two sections of a tandem float when she tripped over a hitch connecting the vehicles and was run over, witnesses told news outlets.

This incident occurred during the parade of the Mystic Krewe of Nyx, an all-female Carnival group that was "established to unite women of diverse backgrounds for fun, friendship, and the merriment of the Mardi Gras season," according to its website.


Shirleen Allicot has details on the tragic incident, which witnesses say happened when the woman tripped over a hitch connecting a tandem float.



"On such a joyous night, this is obviously a tragic occurrence," Nyx Captain Julie Lea said in a statement.

"On behalf of the entire Krewe of Nyx, along with the city of New Orleans, we offer our most sincere condolences to the family and friends of the individual involved."

The accident involved float 21, New Orleans Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said at a news conference. The woman's identity wasn't immediately released.

The parade was ended early, and the rest of the floats were diverted off the parade route. That was the "proper thing to do," New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell told reporters near the scene.

Mardi Gras is Feb. 25, but the Fat Tuesday celebration is preceded by a week or more of parades and parties each year.

The death comes one year after a car sped into a bicycle lane near a parade route, hitting nine people and killing two bicyclists. Sharree Walls, 27, of New Orleans and David Hynes, 31, of Seattle, died not far from where the Krewe of Endymion parade had just passed.

A man identified as the driver in the 2019 incident - Tashonty Toney, 32 - was charged with two counts of vehicular homicide.

GeneChing
02-26-2020, 08:39 AM
Well, this thread is getting off to a rocky start...



Carnival float in Spain features Nazi uniforms and trains with crematoria (https://www.timesofisrael.com/carnival-float-in-spain-features-nazi-uniforms-and-trains-with-crematoria/)
Israeli embassy lashes ‘vile and repugnant’ procession in Campo de Criptana for ‘making fun of the murder of millions of Jews by the Nazis’
By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ
25 February 2020, 10:22 pm 16

https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2020/02/spain-holocaust-march-640x400.png
Carnival float in the Spanish town of Campo de Criptana features uniforms of Nazis, concentration camp inmates and crematoria trains, in February 2020. (YouTube screenshot via JTA)

JTA — At a carnival procession in Spain, participants dressed like Nazis and Jewish concentration camp prisoners while dancing next to a float evoking crematoria.

The Israeli Embassy in Madrid on Tuesday protested the display this weekend at the annual carnival procession in Campo de Criptana, a town situated about 80 miles southeast of the capital.

“We condemn the vile and repugnant representation that disrespects the victims of the Holocaust,” the embassy wrote on Twitter, “making fun of the murder of millions of Jews by the Nazis. European nations must collectively fight anti-Semitism.”

A video of the procession shows the participants marching in their fake Nazi uniforms. Behind them, dancers wearing striped outfits evoking concentration camp uniforms followed while waving flags of Israel. They were followed by the float shaped like a train locomotive with two large chimneys.


https://youtu.be/Rr3xjqUO-R4

On Sunday, a carnival procession in Aalst, Belgium, featured costumes of ultra-Orthodox Jews depicted as ants. Dozens of other participants wore fake hooked noses based on Jewish stereotypes. One group of participants wore shiny black uniforms and red armbands evocative of Nazi uniforms. A third group dressed as Jews carried a sign that warned readers “not to tell the truth about the Jew.”

Last year, UNESCO dropped the Aalst Carnival from its list of world heritage events over the depiction of Jews in the 2019 procession. It featured a float with effigies of grinning Haredim holding bags of money and one with a rat on its shoulders.

The group that created the float said it was meant to protest the rising cost of living.

So anyone here giving up anything for Lent? I'm Buddhist. It's a religion of abstinence so the whole 'no meat' thing (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?61187-Shaolin-diet-vegetarianism-and-stuff) never impresses me.