The Surreal—and Sometimes Terrifying—Costumes of Mardi Gras Outfits

[Michie]

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A Mardi Gras costume from Louisiana, where chasing a live chicken is a holiday tradition. JASON GARDNER

Photographer Jason Gardner spent 15 years traveling the world to document spectacular holiday outfits.​

In February and March, Christian communities around the globe mark the approach of Lent, a solemn season of fasting, with a celebration lasting late into the night. Brazil’s Carnival and New Orleans’s Mardi Gras are two of the most famous examples, but similar festivals are held everywhere from Switzerland to Slovenia to Guinea-Bissau. In Cajun country in Louisiana, revelers chase after a live chicken, an ingredient in the traditional gumbo.

In his new book “We the Spirits” (GOST Books), photographer Jason Gardner documents the costumes and masks that make Carnival so visually appealing. They range from colorful and bright to exaggerated and surreal to downright terrifying. In Spain, a reveler wears a suit covered in walnuts; in Cerkno, Slovenia, an “Ivy Man” costume is made fresh every year, taking three weeks and up to 10,000 leaves.

Continued below.

https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/the-surrealand-sometimes-terrifyingcostumes-of-mardi-gras-cc702228

 

[Michie]

Our need for both Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday

How do we live out both feasting and fasting? This is the ‘both/and’ of Catholicism.

www.oursundayvisitor.com