Although The Big Easy in Louisiana is perhaps best-known for its Mardi Gras revelry, the port city of Mobile, Alabama, founded in 1702 by French settlers, lays claim to being the city that first Mardi Gras parades have been an annual tradition in Lafayette since 1934. Recent attendance on Mardi Gras day has been estimated as high as 250,000 by police spokespersons. The first formal Mardi Gras ball and parade in Lafayette dates back to 1869. In 1897, King Attakapas, the first Lafayette Mardi Gras king was crowned. History of Mardi Gras In 1703, Mobile, Alabama was the first city recorded to have the oldest organized Mardi Gras in the U.S., according to Curious Cuisiniere. "The first documented celebration of modern-day carnival, what people think of as carnival in the United States is historically without a doubt began in Mobile. In 1703, Mobile, Alabama was the first city recorded to have the oldest organized Mardi Gras in the U.S., according to Curious Cuisiniere. "The first documented celebration of modern-day carnival The first American Mardi Gras took place on March 3, 1699, when French explorers Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville and Sieur de Bienville landed near present-day New Orleans, Louisiana. They held a They say the first Mardi Gras celebration in America took place in 1703, when a group of French soldiers held an impromptu celebration in the settlement of Mobile. Their proof is in the fact that, not more than a year later, Frenchmen Nicholas Langlois established a Carnival organization called the Societe de Saint Louis which held their masked Mardi Gras (UK: / ˌ m ɑːr d i ˈ ɡ r ɑː /, US: / ˈ m ɑːr d i ɡ r ɑː /; [1] [2] also known as Shrove Tuesday) is the final day of Carnival (also known as Shrovetide or Fastelavn); it thus falls on the day before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. [3] The first Mardi Gras was held in Alabama, not Louisiana. Visit Louisiana during Carnival season and you’ll get caught up in a celebration that’s been part of the city’s history since the 1700s, but that doesn’t include the very first Mardi Gras celebration in the United States. The History of New Orleans Mardi Gras . Although the date of the first organized celebration of Mardi Gras in New Orleans is debatable, the 1730 account of one Marc-Antoine Caillot (a young clerk sent to Louisiana by the French Company of the Indies) mentions a celebration with music and dance, mask-wearing and costumes—including cross-dressing. By the 1730s, Mardi Gras was celebrated openly in New Orleans. In the early 1740s, Louisiana’s governor, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, established elegant society balls, which became the model for today’s New Orleans Mardi Gras balls. The earliest reference to Mardi Gras “Carnival” appears in 1781. On the night of February 24, 1857, under gaslit torches in New Orleans's warehouse district, a Mardi Gras tradition was born. At the intersection of Julia and Magazine Streets, the Mistick Krewe This is also the first recorded account of Mardi Gras "throws." Newspapers began to announce Mardi Gras events in advance, and they even printed "Carnival Edition" lithographs of parades' fantastic float designs (after they rolled, of course - themes and floats were always carefully guarded before the procession). Mardi Gras, which is also known as Fat Tuesday, is a day of indulgence that marks the end of Carnival. It's immediately followed by Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.Lent is a 40-day season of The origins of Mardi Gras in the United States can be traced back to medieval celebrations in Venice and Rome, as well as to the French House of the Bourbons, which held lavish celebrations. Those spread to the colonies and soon to southern settlements, including the Fort Louis de la Mobile, which was founded in 1703 and later became the city Mardi Gras Past and Present Traditions from the past that live on today. Mardi Gras has been celebrated in New Orleans since the explorer Iberville first set foot here on Mardi Gras Day 1699. In French colonial days, wealthy members of Creole society threw lavish Mardi Gras balls from Twelfth Night (Jan. 6) to Fat Tuesday Eve. The first Mardi Gras “krewe” took to the streets in 1857, when the Mistick Krewe of Comus, “a group of New Orleans businessmen, decided to invent a more civilized celebration” after Mobile, AL; Photo: CityofMobile.org. Mobile was the location of the very first Mardi Gras celebration in the U.S. in 1703. It has been celebrating since a city clerk named Joe Cain revived the port city’s Mardi Gras tradition after the Civil War. After rowdy revelers began to get violent during the 1850s, a secret society called the Mistick Krewe of Comus staged the first large-scale, well-organized Mardi Gras parade in 1857. In 1703, French settlers in Mobile established the first organized Mardi Gras celebration tradition in what was to become the United States. The first informal mystic society, or krewe, "Masque de la Mobile" was formed in Mobile in 1704; it lasted until 1709. The first Mardi Gras celebration in America was celebrated in 1703 in the settlement of Fort Louis de la Mobile. Mardi Gras was celebrated soon after the city of New Orleans was founded in 1718
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