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Mardi Gras
also known as Fat Tuesday

March 8, 2011

New Orleans, Louisiana
Bourbon Street French Quarter
 



Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday - New Orleans, Louisiana

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History

Mardi Gras is a celebration that begins on or after Epiphany and ending on the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday", referring to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season. Pancakes and related fried breads or pastries made with sugar, fat and eggs are traditionally consumed at this time in many parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Millions of fun-seekers travel to New Orleans Bourbon Street in the French Quarter every year to celebrate Mardi Gras on a grand scale, with masked balls and colorful parades, since French settlers arrived in the early 1700s.

Marching bands take to the streets with music and festive dress to start the celebration by spreading jazz music through the city before the more than 350 floats and 15,000 costumed paraders.

Crazy costumes and wild make-up are the order of the day for paraders and parade-watchers alike. 

The origins of Mardi Gras can be traced to Medival Europe, though there is no written record how it became what we know today as Mardi Gras.  The Mardi Gras we celebrate today -- with Kings, Mardi Gras colors, and brass bands -- are traced to New Orleans. Other cities famous for Mardi Gras celebrations include Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sydney, Australia, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Quebec City, Canada; Mazatlán, Sinaloa in Mexico; and New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.

French-Canadian explorer, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville, established "Pointe due Mardi Gras in 1699. He also established "Fort Louis de la Louisiane" in 1703 where the first Mardi Gras was organized. By the 1730s, Mardi Gras was celebrated openly in New Orleans.

By the late 1830s, New Orleans started to hold street processions of maskers with carriages and horseback to celebrate Mardi Gras. In 1873, the first floats were constructed entirely in New Orleans instead of France. In 1875, Governor Warmoth of Louisiana signs the "Mardi Gras Act" making it a legal holiday in Louisiana.


Mardi Gras Dates 

2011 March 8 2018 February 13
2012 February 21 2019 March 5
2013 February 12 2020 February 25
2014 March 4 2021 February 16
2015 February 17 2022 March 1
2016 February 9 2023 February 21
2017 February 28 2024 February 13

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