![]() Local businesses took advantage of the eager atmosphere, with many announcing carnival sales and stocking up on white shoes and black tailcoats many bars concocted “carnival cocktails” and “carnival punches.” Private roadways announced they would give discounts to carnival-goers, as did the railroads into the town. Excitement in the District was high the Evening Star, in particular, was looking forward to the carnival “brightening the dull routine of day to day life at the Metropolis.” A goat race was planned, which over thirty goats were registered one overeager young man brought his goat to registration, all the way up to the third-floor room of the Shepherd’s building. Colored flags and flags of nations were hung from buildings around the street, and strings of lights were set up all along Pennsylvania Avenue. MASKERADE BALL DC FEB 6 FULLBy the time the week of the Fete rolled around, preparations were in full swing. The Carnival was set to occur on February 20 - Mardi Gras and the day before. The knightly tournament, the masquerade, the balls - the committees added more and more in a seeming attempt to achieve maximum pomp with minimal circumstance for doing so. Soon Mardi Gras traditions were thrown into the mix, notables from Baltimore and New York were invited to the scene, and every organization in town was invited to don costumes and march in a parade. The festival organizers, however, had grander plans. ![]() At the beginning, the newspapers only held vague hints of a masquerade. The District’s carnival began as a celebration of “new wooden pavement on Pennsylvania Avenue,” but it quickly snowballed into something entirely different and by far more enormous, absorbing both Washington’s birthday and Mardi Gras along the way to become a sort of nationalistic hybrid of revelry. By the 1870s, Carnival/Mardi Gras traditions were well established in several parts of the Deep South, but they had never yet ventured as far north as the nation’s capital. The National Fete, as it also became known, was an extremely patriotic version of the Carnival festivities, with national flags, “Yankee Doodle,” and rockets’ red glare mingling with the Lord of Misrule and the masquerade.Ĭarnival fetes and balls had been happening in Mobile, AL, since 1703, and some of the traditions of the Carnival were taking place around the American colonies even earlier than that Philadelphia, for instance, held Carnival-like tournaments on occasion as far back as 1778. stumbled into hosting a Carnival parade that rivaled those in New Orleans itself. This hasn’t always been the case, however. There are plenty of revelers - and people celebrating Caribbean culture - but the capital certainly doesn’t come to a halt the way cities like New Orleans do on Mardi Gras. The modern-day DC Caribbean Carnival is a small affair, at least compared to the world-famous parades in carnival cities. ![]() Crowds pack the top floor of the Treasury Building as the Carnival is in full swing on Pennsylvania Avenue. ![]()
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