One World Celebration offers a carnival of Mardi Gras events

One World Celebration offers a carnival of Mardi Gras eventsFebruary 25, 2003Megan Feringtonmafering@syr.edu

Students, faculty and community members are invited to celebrate Mardi Gras with several campus activities. The events are part of the One World Celebration, which celebrates the diversity of Syracuse University and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

The International Celebration of Mardi Gras is the theme for the Skate Past Midnight program at Tennity Ice Skating Pavilion on Saturday, March 1 from 10 p.m.-1 a.m. During the event, jazz and international music will be played for skaters enjoying the late night activities. Prizes will be awarded for the best Mardi Gras costumes, and hungry skaters can look forward to international snacks. A limited number of beaded necklaces and Mardi Gras masks will be available for guests. Admission is $6 for the general public and free for SU students with I.D; the fee for renting skates is $4.

On Fat Tuesday, March 4, Hendricks Chapel will be the site for feasting and festivities. The Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras Pancake Supper will be served from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. in the Noble Room of Hendricks Chapel. The event will celebrate the last feast before the beginning of Lent, with a traditional meal of pancakes, sausage and bacon.

“The traditional food of Shrove Tuesday, as it is called in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, dates back to the early Middle Ages when people finished up their fats and meats before Ash Wednesday,” says Christine Day, Episcopal chaplain at Hendricks Chapel. According to Day, the traditional meal led to pancake-flipping races in some English towns.

Following the Shrove Tuesday feast, a Mardi Gras Dixieland Jazz Mass will begin at 7 p.m. in Hendricks’ main chapel. Worshipers are invited to celebrate the Eucharist with Dixieland jazz music and festive songs. King cakes will be served after the mass, following the New Orleans tradition in which the diner who finds a trinket in the cake is designated the King of the feast. The supper and mass are both sponsored by the Lutheran Campus Ministries, the Episcopal Campus Ministries and the Interdenominational Protestant Campus Ministries.

During the One World Celebration, which began Feb. 19 and runs through March 5, various campus groups are encouraged to host activities that highlight and promote the diversity of Syracuse University and SUNY ESF. The Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars sponsors the campus celebration by bringing the events together under the One World title.