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Mardi Gras is a tradition that dates back thousands of years to pagan celebrations of spring and fertility, including the raucous Roman festivals of Saturnalia and Lupercalia. In the Czech Republic, it is a folk tradition to celebrate Mardi Gras, with the last of the old-line krewes the Krewe of Proteus being formed 10 years later. The very first Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans was held in 1837. However, the first American celebration of Mardi Gras happened in 1699 near where New Orleans is now. Mardi Gras is known for 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. When is Mardi Gras 2025? Mardi Gras, also known as Fat Tuesday, is on Tuesday, March 4 this year. Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday. Like Ash Wednesday and Easter, Mardi Gras' date changes The very first American Mardi Gras celebration took place in March 1699 after two French settlers landed near present-day New Orleans and brought their traditions with them. The French colonists who followed over the proceeding decades introduced the "Galette des Rois," or king cake, which is how it became a New Orleanian symbol. On March 2, 1699, French-Canadian explorer Jean Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville arrived at a plot of ground 60 miles directly south of New Orleans, and named it "Pointe du Mardi Gras" when his men realized it was the eve of the festive holiday. Bienville also established "Fort Louis de la Louisiane" (which is now Mobile) in 1702. While New Orleans may be most known for Mardi Gras in the U.S. today, the tiny settlement of Fort Louis de la Mobile celebrated America’s very first Mardi Gras in 1703. Mardi Gras was celebrated in New Orleans soon after the city’s founding in 1718. The first recorded Mardi Gras street parade in New Orleans took place in 1837. Celebrations are concentrated for about two weeks before and through Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday (the start of lent in the Western Christian tradition). Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday, the season is known as Carnival and begins on 12th Night, January 6th, and extends until midnight before Ash Wednesday. Club, or Krewe From the past to the present, Mardi Gras is full of traditions. Mardi Gras balls began in the 1700s and still exist today. At the Twelfth Night ball, a king cake was cut, and whoever found the bean (a precursor to today’s baby) inside would host the next ball. This would continue until Mardi Gras evening. 1. Krewes . Within two decades after the French explorer Bienville LeMoyne founded New Orleans in 1718, the city’s annual celebrations of Carnival had become an annual event, complete with By the late 1830s, the notion of New Orleans Mardi Gras as a public celebration with broad appeal, as an amusing occasion for carrying on Old World tradition, was on the cusp of change. Revelers who would later become known as “promiscuous maskers,” for their irreverent and bawdy foolery, had begun to make their presence felt. The masquerade is an enduring tradition of the Mardi Gras festivities as an opportunity for people to shed their inhibitions and fully imbibe in the party-spirit. A New Orleans city ordinance Last updated on March 8th, 2023 at 06:10 am. For those who think Mardi Gras is a weeks-long celebration of debauchery, drunkenness, and nudity–you’re right. Mardi Gras is about music, parades, beads, floats and excitement. It's one big holiday in New Orleans! Read more about these popular traditions. Mardi Gras is a festive day celebrated in France on Shrove Tuesday (the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday), which marks the close of the pre-Lenten season. The French name Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday, from the custom of using all the fats in the home before Lent. The all-male krewe has been staging Mardi Gras events in New Orleans since 1872 and are the ones who started the tradition of using the holiday’s famous colors: yellow, purple, and green. This year, Mardi Gras will be celebrated on Tuesday, March 4, 2025 in the United States. How is the date of Mardi Gras determined each year? Mardi Gras, or “Fat Tuesday,” does not fall on the same day every year, but it is always the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. The Mardi Gras holiday is tied to Easter, because The Origins of Mardi Gras in France. Mardi Gras (literally “Fat Tuesday”) is originally a catholic event that marks the end of the “week of the seven fat days”.. They were known as “jours charnels” (meaning carnival) in the old days. The Mardi Gras tradition of throwing beads is thought to have started in the 1890s when one of the carnival kings threw strings of beads and fake jewels to his “loyal subjects” on the route
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