Transformation of identity is a central element in Carnival, and disguising the face is a key method of transforming identity. Also, Mardi Gras krewes have enjoyed maintaining an element of secrecy (membership in groups may be kept secret; so may the identity of the kings of certain groups, for example, and members of Mardi Gras Indian groups keep their costumes secret until Mardi Gras morning), and a mask certainly helps to maintain such secrecy, enabling people to appear in public without revealing who they are, possibly performing actions with which they would not want personally to be identified. ² The mask easily becomes emblematic of transformation, and disguise and secrecy come to be thought of as symbolic of the very institution of Carnival and the practices that are part of it.

…Folklorists, anthropologists and historians who have commented on New Orleans Mardi Gras have in fact paid little attention to the ethnography of the mask. Who dons a mask, when and exactly why they do so, how people obtain masks and exactly how they think of them are questions that have largely gone unaddressed, possibly because the basic reasons for wearing masks seem obvious. Indeed, the relatively small amount of attention that has been given to Louisiana Mardi Gras masks has been given to those used for the country form of the celebration maintained by the Cajuns and Creoles who live well west of the Big Easy. Ronnie Roshto has written specifically about the Cajun mask makers Georgie and Allen Manuel (1992), while Carl Lindahl and Carolyn Ware (1997) take a broader view, looking at masks and over a half dozen mask makers in the Cajun communities of Basile and Tee Mamou. Lindahl and Ware consider such issues as how masks enable participants to assume roles, such as that of the sauvage and the beggar (the mask, they say, confers “the freedom. . .to create a new identity” and they note “the dramatic way in which the wearer brings (“the mask ‘to life'” [56]), and their discussion of masks is integrated into a discussion of how the Cajun Mardi Gras plays out, although their primary concern is the masks themselves, including their history and the materials of their construction. 

….Carolyn Ware (2007) notes that some communities require hand-made masks for their Mardi Gras “runs,” stimulating a turn toward mask-making by local women. Ware also writes of women running Mardi Gras as having somewhat different requirements for their masks than do the men (for example, the more traditional masks made of painted wire screen mesh were thought by women to be too uncomfortable, leading to needlepoint masks). According to Ware, mask styles differ by community also (“The lavish decoration of a typical Tee Mamou mask. . . would seem over the top in Basile” [2007: 102]), and some participants have preferred commercially made rubber masks.

Something About Being Anonymous”: The New Orleans Mardi Gras Mask Market

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The Keepers of the Light

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The Masked Merriment of Mardi Gras | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian

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