 Attendees of the first-ever Sunrise Rotary Mardi Gras Dinner-Dance were not shy about wearing appropriate costumes. The guest with the best costume this year will walk away with $100. Photo collage by Wynne Benti By Wynne Benti
Special to The Inyo Register 1-31-2008
In just two days, residents and visitors will have the chance to dance away the winter doldroms, win lots of great prizes, feast on Cajun cuisine and don traditional carnivale garb, all while raising funds for community projects.
This Saturday night, Bishop Sunrise Rotary is sponsoring its second annual Mardi Gras Dinner-Dance and community fundraiser in the Home Economics Building at the Tri-County Fairgrounds starting at 6 p.m. The Cajun dinner menu includes Andouille sausage jambalaya, Cajun chicken, breaded crayfish, coleslaw, sourdough bread and assorted desserts. In addition to wine, beer and cocktails, the no-host bar will serve Hurricanes, the traditional Mardi Gras drink of rum and passionfruit syrup. Dinner tickets are $40 and are available at Anne Marie’s, Hardy & Place, Coons Gallery and at the Inyo Council for the Arts. Funds raised at the event will benefit schools and various community groups and projects within Inyo County.
Among the items featured at this year’s silent auction include a custom-framed 20-by-30 inch print from Mountain Light Gallery of Galen’s Rowell “Fall Sunrise over the Owens Valley”; a basket from Mammoth Mountain Ski Area with bike pass, Tamarack cross-country ski pass, two full-day lift tickets and a season pass to June Mountain; handmade artisan vases donated by Bishop Police Chief Kathleen Sheehan; two beautiful handmade Tibetan rugs; gift certificates to Whiskey Creek and Yamatani; an original oil painting by Cheryl McDowell; a decorative Corkscrew Hazel tree from Bishop Nursery; a gift certificate from Golden State Cycle; a gift basket from Paiute Palace; a 15-gallon tree with planting from New-Cali Landscapes; a Vera Bradley purse and matching duffle from Anne Marie’s; and a half-day ATV rental from Bishop MotoSports.
The highlight of the evening will be a drawing for a $1,500 travel gift certificate for an anywhere-in-the-world vacation. In addition, $100 will be awarded for the best Mardi Gras costume.
No one really knows the true origins of Mardi Gras, or Carnivale, though some historians believe that Mardi Gras may have evolved from an ancient Roman festival dating back several hundred years before the birth of Christ. Lupercalia was celebrated in mid-February and honored Rome’s mythological founders, Romulus and Remus. In 324 AD, after uniting the western and eastern empires of Rome, emperor Constantine Augustus established Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. To ease acceptance of the new religion, many ancient Roman traditions, including Lupercalia, were incorporated into the new faith. Carnivale, as it was later called, was a time of merriment and general partying, wearing masks and costumes, drinking and eating, before Lent’s 40 days of fasting. In France, Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday in English, meant it was time to eat up all the meats and fats in the house in preparation for Lent.
The French explorer Sieur d’Iberville is credited with introducing Mardi Gras to America. Sailing into the Gulf of Mexico in 1699, his expedition traveled up the Mississippi River. On March 3, he set up camp approximately 60 miles south of present-day New Orleans, naming the site Point du Mardi Gras in honor of the festival taking place in his native France around the same time. Depending on what version of history you prefer, the American origins of Mardi Gras have been attributed to the French who settled in Louisiana or to a group of American art students who, on Fat Tuesday in 1827, danced up and down the streets of New Orleans in costume having just returned from studying in Paris where they experienced the celebration.
The Bishop Rotary Sunrise Mardi Gras celebration had more humble beginnings, originating in a back room at Whiskey Creek, the brain-child of member Diane Bramlette. Originally, it was a just a mid-winter club social event. Everyone had such a good time that the consensus was to sponsor a community event that would help raise funds for Sunrise Rotary’s many local community projects.
“It is a time of year when not a lot is happening, and we were looking for something a little unique for Bishop,” current Sunrise President Tom Hardy said. |
