Mardi Gras Masquerade Minnesota
Style
Place: Throwbacks Grille &
Bar
1690
Woodlane Drive
Woodbury, MN 55125
Date: March 5, 2011
Time: 3 – 5 pm
Come in a
Masquerade to win prizes.
Come join us for an afternoon of celebration. This event will
be part of a multi event to celebrate Mardi Gras. The other
locations for this multi event are Texas, Pittsburg, Michigan,
Seattle, South Carolina, California, and Utah.
When you think of Mardi Gras do you associated if with raucous
celebrations, beads flying through the air, ear-to-ear grins
plastered on the faces of millions of revelers, and of course
floats parading through the streets of New Orleans!
Mardi Gras is not only celebrated in the Bayous and Parishes of
Louisiana, but across the US and the world. Some of the other
noteworthy celebrations are Rio de Janeiro Carnival, Venice in
Italy, Mazatlan in Mexico, and throughout many cities in Europe,
Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Mardi Gras, which in French translates to Fat Tuesday, is
officially the day before Ash Wednesday. The day is also commonly
referred to as Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day and can occur anytime
between February 3rd and March 9th, depending on when Easter is
held that particular year. But as the celebrations in America and
across the world have grown larger with each passing year, Mardi
Gras, has evolved from one day into week long celebrations.
One of the traditions of Mardi Gras are the doubloons, which were
introduced in 1964by the Rex Krewe founder, H. Alvin Sharp. The
doubloon is one of the most enduring symbols of Mardi Gras. These
highly detailed, brightly-colored coins are thrown from the floats
and many have become collector items.
Doubloons are stamped with the different carnival club logo on one
side and the parade's theme on the other, so that no two clubs have
doubloons that are exactly alike, and each year they are different,
too. They are minted in various colors, and from different
materials, like aluminum, silver, bronze and now plastic. Anodized
coins are also thrown. These are coins that have been dipped in
color. For example the krewe of Mid City in 1998 had doubloons of
purple, green, gold, with the king's doubloon in blue. All told,
there are somewhere between four and five thousand designs that
have been minted, over the years since and who knows how many
million doubloons are out there now.
Doubloons aren't just thrown in New Orleans. They are also minted
and thrown in Mobile as well. The parading mystic societies there,
have been throwing the coins since the mid 1960's. The infant
Mystics were the first krewe in Mobile to throw doubloons. Many
non-parading mystics have coins each year as well.Trading doubloons
have also become a popular hobby among Mardi Gras devotees. Many
people find a value in finding doubloons from certain years,
featuring certain designs or colors.
In keeping with the tradition of Doubloons, a Geocoin was produced
for these events. A total of 13 versions . Below is the mint art
for the Minnesota version. If have questions or would like to
reserves a coin, please e-mail NOSNOW.
