Mistick Krewe of Comus
Encyclopedia
The Mistick Krewe of Comus (founded in 1856) is a New Orleans, Louisiana
Carnival
krewe
.
Prior to the advent of Comus
, Carnival celebrations in New Orleans were mostly confined to the Roman Catholic Creole
community, and parades were irregular and often very informally organized.Comus was organized by Anglo-Americans.
, Alabama
gathered at a club room above the now-defunct Gem Restaurant in New Orleans' French Quarter to organize a secret society to observe Mardi Gras
in a less crude fashion. The inspiration for the name came from John Milton
's Lord of Misrule
in his masque
Comus
. Part of the inspiration for the parade was a Mobile
Carnival mystic society, with annual parades in Mobile, Alabama
, called the Cowbellion de Rakin Society (from 1830),
of which businessman Joseph Ellison, was a member (a Mobile Cowbellion).
One Mardi Gras historian describes the Mistick Krewe's creation in New Orleans thus:
Comus' first night parade – replete with torches (which later came to be known as "flambeaux"), marching bands and rolling floats – was wildly popular with Carnival revelers. So popular was the first Comus parade that the prospect of its second one attracted, for the first time, thousands of out-of-town visitors to New Orleans for the Carnival celebration.
To Ye Mistick Krewe –
GREETINGS!
WHEREAS, War has cast its gloom over our happy homes and care usurped the place where joy is wont to
hold its sway. Now, therefore, do I deeply sympathizing with the general anxiety, deem it proper to
withhold your Annual Festival in this goodly Crescent City and by this proclamation do command no assemblage
of the
-MISTICK KREWE-
Given under my hand this, the 1st day of March A.D. 1862.
COMUS
Comus issued an identical proclamation in 1917 (for World War I) and another in 1942 (for World War II) and again in 1951 (for the Korean War). On each occasion, the Captain of Comus persuaded the Captains of other Carnival organizations to refrain from organized revelry during hostilities.
From 1885-1889, the Mistick Krewe chose not to parade, although other observances continued. During this period, the Krewe of Proteus
moved its parade to Carnival night. When Comus resumed parading in 1890, Proteus refused a request to withdraw from parading on Carnival night. That year, the two parades collided on Canal Street, nearly reaching an impasse. As the Captains of the two groups exchanged defiant expressions, a Comus masker diverted the horse bearing the Captain of Proteus, and Comus was able to complete its procession.
Parading on Mardi Gras night, Comus was the final parade of the New Orleans carnival season for over 100 years. It was much smaller and more sedate than the other parades of the day put on by Rex
and the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club
. The Comus parades became known for their sometimes obscure themes relating to ancient history and mythology. While other New Orleans parades might have themes like "Foods of the World" or "Broadway Show Tunes", Comus would present themes like "Serpent Deities
of the Ancient Near East".
Two federal courts later declared that the ordinance was an unconstitutional infringement on First Amendment rights of free association, and an unwarranted intrusion on the privacy of the groups subject to the ordinance. The decision of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals appears at volume 42, page 1483 of the Federal Reporter (3rd Series), or 42 F.3d 1483 (5th Cir. 1995). The Supreme Court refused to hear the city's appeal from this decision. Despite this, the krewe has not returned to the streets to parade.(Proteus later returned)
The Mistick Krewe of Comus still holds an annual ball on Mardi Gras night.
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
Carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
krewe
Krewe
A krewe is an organization that puts on a parade and or a ball for the Carnival season. The term is best known for its association with New Orleans Mardi Gras, but is also used in other Carnival celebrations around the Gulf of Mexico, such as the Gasparilla Pirate Festival in Tampa, Florida, and...
.
Prior to the advent of Comus
Comus
In Greek mythology, Comus or Komos is the god of festivity, revels and nocturnal dalliances. He is a son and a cup-bearer of the god Bacchus. Comus represents anarchy and chaos. His mythology occurs in the later times of antiquity. During his festivals in Ancient Greece, men and women exchanged...
, Carnival celebrations in New Orleans were mostly confined to the Roman Catholic Creole
Louisiana Creole people
Louisiana Creole people refers to those who are descended from the colonial settlers in Louisiana, especially those of French and Spanish descent. The term was first used during colonial times by the settlers to refer to those who were born in the colony, as opposed to those born in the Old World...
community, and parades were irregular and often very informally organized.Comus was organized by Anglo-Americans.
Formation & First Parade
In December 1856, six Anglo-American New Orleans businessmen, formerly of MobileMobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
gathered at a club room above the now-defunct Gem Restaurant in New Orleans' French Quarter to organize a secret society to observe Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras
The terms "Mardi Gras" , "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday...
in a less crude fashion. The inspiration for the name came from John Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
's Lord of Misrule
Lord of Misrule
In England, the Lord of Misrule — known in Scotland as the Abbot of Unreason and in France as the Prince des Sots — was an officer appointed by lot at Christmas to preside over the Feast of Fools...
in his masque
Masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio...
Comus
Comus (John Milton)
Comus is a masque in honour of chastity, written by John Milton. It was first presented on Michaelmas, 1634, before John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater at Ludlow Castle in celebration of the Earl's new post as Lord President of Wales.Known colloquially as Comus, the mask's actual full title is A...
. Part of the inspiration for the parade was a Mobile
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
Carnival mystic society, with annual parades in Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
, called the Cowbellion de Rakin Society (from 1830),
of which businessman Joseph Ellison, was a member (a Mobile Cowbellion).
One Mardi Gras historian describes the Mistick Krewe's creation in New Orleans thus:
- "It was Comus, who, in 1857, saved and transformed the dying flame of the old Creole Carnival with his enchanter's cup; it was Comus who introduced torch lit processions and thematic floats to Mardi Gras; and it was Comus who ritually closed, and still closes, the most cherished festivities of New Orleans with splendor and pomp."
Comus' first night parade – replete with torches (which later came to be known as "flambeaux"), marching bands and rolling floats – was wildly popular with Carnival revelers. So popular was the first Comus parade that the prospect of its second one attracted, for the first time, thousands of out-of-town visitors to New Orleans for the Carnival celebration.
Respite from Revelry
From the first Comus parade until a police strike in 1979, nothing suspended New Orleans' lavish Mardi Gras celebrations except war. On March 1, 1862, Comus issued his first proclamation suspending Carnival revelry on account of war. On that day, the New Orleans Daily Picayune published this notice:GREETINGS!
WHEREAS, War has cast its gloom over our happy homes and care usurped the place where joy is wont to
hold its sway. Now, therefore, do I deeply sympathizing with the general anxiety, deem it proper to
withhold your Annual Festival in this goodly Crescent City and by this proclamation do command no assemblage
of the
-MISTICK KREWE-
Given under my hand this, the 1st day of March A.D. 1862.
COMUS
Comus issued an identical proclamation in 1917 (for World War I) and another in 1942 (for World War II) and again in 1951 (for the Korean War). On each occasion, the Captain of Comus persuaded the Captains of other Carnival organizations to refrain from organized revelry during hostilities.
From 1885-1889, the Mistick Krewe chose not to parade, although other observances continued. During this period, the Krewe of Proteus
Krewe of Proteus
The Krewe of Proteus is the second oldest parade krewe in New Orleans Mardi Gras. The parade of the krewe of Proteus traditionally travels an Uptown or St. Charles route ending on Canal Street. Parade floats still use original chassis from the early 1880s....
moved its parade to Carnival night. When Comus resumed parading in 1890, Proteus refused a request to withdraw from parading on Carnival night. That year, the two parades collided on Canal Street, nearly reaching an impasse. As the Captains of the two groups exchanged defiant expressions, a Comus masker diverted the horse bearing the Captain of Proteus, and Comus was able to complete its procession.
Early Affiliation with Pickwick Club
Membership in Comus was historically associated with membership in the private Pickwick Club and for a time the two organizations were one. The two organizations severed all official ties in 1884. In modern times, the membership is not identical but it is believed that they have common members.Carnival Secrecy & Exclusivity
Comus has jealously guarded the identities of its membership and the privacy of its activities (other than its parade), perhaps even more than other Carnival organizations that subscribe to the traditional code of Carnival secrecy. Carnival legend has it that admittance to the Mistick Krewe's ball was so highly sought-after that a group of uninvited ladies formed a flying wedge and attempted to force their way into the Comus ball. In other years, uninvited persons have tried to beg, buy or steal invitations to the Comus ball. Even after the ball is over, Comus invitations are prized by collectors, as they are both uncommonly beautiful and rare.The Meeting of the Courts
The Mistick Krewe of Comus also originated another Carnival tradition: the" Meeting of the Courts." The practice originated in 1892, when Rex (the King of Carnival) and his Queen paid a formal visit to the throne of Comus. This ritualized meeting eventually evolved into the symbolic conclusion of the Mardi Gras season, a practice which continues to this day. Although Rex is the titular "King" of Carnival, some observers believe that the Meeting of the Courts – in which Rex leaves his own festivities and is received by a seated Comus at the Mistick Krewe's bal masque – establishes Comus as the more prestigious of the two organizations in the Carnival hierarchy.Mardi Gras parades
The first Comus parade was held on Mardi Gras 1857, and this became an annual event. Other organizations sprang up in New Orleans in the 19th century, inspired by the Comus model, and also came to be known as "Krewes".Parading on Mardi Gras night, Comus was the final parade of the New Orleans carnival season for over 100 years. It was much smaller and more sedate than the other parades of the day put on by Rex
Rex parade
Rex is a New Orleans Carnival Krewe which stages one of the city's most celebrated parades on Mardi Gras Day. Rex is Latin for "King", and Rex reigns as "The King of Carnival"....
and the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club
Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club
The Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club is a Carnival Krewe in New Orleans, Louisiana which puts on the Zulu parade each Mardi Gras Day. Zulu is New Orleans' largest predominantly African American carnival organization known for its blackfaced krewe members wearing grass skirts and its unique throw...
. The Comus parades became known for their sometimes obscure themes relating to ancient history and mythology. While other New Orleans parades might have themes like "Foods of the World" or "Broadway Show Tunes", Comus would present themes like "Serpent Deities
Serpent (symbolism)
Serpent in Latin means: Rory Collins :&, in turn, from the Biblical Hebrew word of: "saraf" with root letters of: which refers to something burning-as, the pain of poisonous snake's bite was likened to internal burning.This word is commonly used in a specifically mythic or religious context,...
of the Ancient Near East".
Withdrawal from Parading
In 1991 the New Orleans city council passed an ordinance that required social organizations, including Mardi Gras Krewes, to certify publicly that they did not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, in order to obtain parade permits and other public licensure. In effect, the ordinance required these, and other, private social groups to abandon their traditional code of secrecy and identify their members for the city's Human Relations Commission. The Comus organization (along with Momus and Proteus, other 19th century Krewes) withdrew from parading rather than identify its membership.Two federal courts later declared that the ordinance was an unconstitutional infringement on First Amendment rights of free association, and an unwarranted intrusion on the privacy of the groups subject to the ordinance. The decision of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals appears at volume 42, page 1483 of the Federal Reporter (3rd Series), or 42 F.3d 1483 (5th Cir. 1995). The Supreme Court refused to hear the city's appeal from this decision. Despite this, the krewe has not returned to the streets to parade.(Proteus later returned)
The Mistick Krewe of Comus still holds an annual ball on Mardi Gras night.