Carnival Mazatlan 2014

Today Steve and I walked along the Malecon and took pictures of the beautiful Paper-Mache statues that have been placed along the Malecon.  All of which is in preparation for Carnaval which commences on Feb. 27 through March 4.    The theme for this year is Litoralia: La Piel del Mar (Litoral: The Skin of The Sea).

Elusive in translation, some believe that the name is an allusion to fact the best carnivals in the world (Rio, Sao Paulo, Havana, New Orleans...) are celebrated in cities along coasts.



Mazatlán Carnaval 2014!


Carnival in Mazatlan isn't just about Carnaval Week, it involves an entire year of preparation that becomes heated in the Fall as the holidays draw near and carnival does not seem so far away, and begins to glow white-hot after new year. In a very real sense, the 2014 Mazatlan Carnaval has already begun.The city of Mazatlan officially rang in the 2014 Carnaval Season on December 6th, 2013, with a gala celebration at La Puntilla -- right on the docks overlooking the port where Carnaval began.

Far more than an "announcement", this full-blown stage show / party featured live dancers and huge projection screens flanking the stage with video, images and music from previous Mazatlan carnivals.

History of Carnaval in Mazatlan

The tradition of mid-winter festivals in Mazatlan is as old as the city itself, with masquerades and feasts referenced from the time of the earliest setters in the early 1800's.

It is suggested by some historians that these festivals originally reflected the traditions of the indigenous population -- with some Spanish influence, much like the melding of early religious practices. These celebrations are noted as early as 1823, immediately after the Spanish parliament opened our port to international commerce and the first seagoing vessels began to visit Mazatlan.

Though "Carnaval" was noted in Mazatlan as early as 1848 -- it was mentioned in the Mazatlan newspaper La Lechuza -- it wasn’t until 50 years later than the event took its present form as a week-long multi-event blow-out complete with parades, floats, social events and an official King and Queen.

The very end of the 1800's -- 1898 to be exact -- marks when Mazatlan
officially embraced the Mardi Gras tradition of Carnival, and there has been no turning back from this massive annual public party!

History notes that the early Mazatlan Carnivals -- pre-1898 -- were informal and often somewhat vulgar.

Women threw flour and hollow eggshells (cascarones) filled with glitter, and men responding by tossing ashes and dyes at the women.

These earliest Mazatlan Carnavals also included mock battles where rival groups -- dock workers and market workers -- shouted insults and taunts and threw rocks at each other.

But in 1898 civic leaders headed by Dr. Martiniano Carvajal and a committee with an international flavor -- it supposedly included an Irishman, a German, a Spaniard and an Italian -- organized a parade made up of carriages and bicycles "to eradicate the immoral flour and replace it with the pure and more restrained confetti."

The event was focused within Plaza Machado and the nearby Centro Historico streets, but rapidly, carnival spilled out of the Centro Historico and spread north from Olas Altas Beach up Paseo Claussen.

The parades and events of the modern Mazatlan Carnaval now stretch north of the Golden Zone and into neighborhoods inland from the Malecon and, while today's Carnaval may not involve tossing flour, it is hardly restrained!

Mardi Gras in Mazatlan is one of the biggest and best bashes anywhere in the Americas that sees thousands of costumed revelers thronging the Malecon and beaches.

The modern Mazatlan Carnaval combines the best of traditional carnivals with the excitement of modern technology -- each evening of Carnival Week the
Malecon, Olas Altas Beach and the Centro Historico become the perfect stage for this singing and dancing Bacchanalia, with parades, outdoor concerts, fireworks, sound and light shows and beer for everyone stretching farther north than the eye can see!