Rae - You might be interested in looking into Cajun Mardi Gras Celebrations of Rural Southwestern Louisiana (my adopted home).
Here's a good site:
http://www.lsue.edu/acadgate/mardmain.htmThe celebrations hold significantly tighter to the Pagan roots of the celebration, particularly the begging rituals. The Cajuns of Southwest Louisiana originally left France for Canada, establishing a permanent colony (called Acadie) in Nova Scotia in 1604 (the first permanent colony in the New World). They came from fishing villages in Western France, and their religion was a typically countrified neo-Pagan form of Catholicism. They survived in the New World by being (gasp!) NICE to the local Micmac Indians, pooling resources, buying (not taking) land, sharing weapons, boats, etc.
In 1755, after the Treaty of Utrecht gave Canada to England, the Brits said that the Acadians had to either pledge loyalty to the crown or get out. Through all sorts of unsavory methods, the majority of the Acadians were expelled and sent to the winds (although many stayed behind, hiding in the woods with the Micmacs). The French didn't want to let them back in, the English didn't want them, and they weren't particularly welcome in the Protestant colonies (although Maryland, a Catholic colony, let some of them in).
At this point, Spain owned Louisiana (which stretched all the way up the Mississippi to Canada) and were eager for colonists. So they invited the Acadians in, and they settled in Southwest Louisiana (not New Orleans, as some people mistakenly think). Again befriending the local Indians, as well as Gens Libres de Couleur (Free Men of Color, many of whom were escaped slaves from the Haitian Slave Rebellion) and about a half-dozen more cultural groups... incorporating music, foodways, and cultural celebrations all together.
It's a cool culture, frequently misunderstood and assumed to be backwoods and redneck but actually extremely rich in culture and DEEPLY rooted in nature-based traditions.
