The name "Mardi Gras" comes from the French words for FAT TUESDAY. This is the day before Ash Wednesday, the end of carnival season and the beginning of Lent. Lent is the 40 days of sacrifice before Easter, when christians do atonement for their sin. The dates of Mardi Gras vary. It can fall anywhere between February 3rd and March 9th, depending on the date of Easter.

 Mardi Gras was brought to the States from Europe. The first recorded Mardi Gras celebration was in 1699, on the Mississippi river, just downstream of what is now New Orleans, La. The Mardi Gras season starts every year on "Twelfth Night", the twelveth night after Chrismas, which is January 6th.  The parties are mostly held by Mardi Gras social clubs. Each social club, called a KREWE, chooses a king and queen for that year, and they plan and give the parties. Some social clubs have masked parades, and throw beads and trinkets during the Mardi Gras season, and some don't. Even people not in a social club can get in on the fun by having King Cake parties.

King Cakes were introduced to the Mardi Gras celebration in 1872, by the Krewe of Rex of New Orleans. It is a coffee cake that is braided, and made into an oblong shape, and sprinkled with purple, green, and gold sugars. These colors were first chosen by Rex for the Mardi Gras celebration. The colors stand for, PURPLE-justice, GREEN- faith, and GOLD-power. The original king cake had a bean hidden inside,  and what ever lady found the bean would be queen of the Mardi Gras for that year. Now thay hide a small plastic baby, and the person that finds it hosts the next party. 

Some parties are a simple get together, of club members only, and some are very elaborate events, called Mardi Gras tableaus. At the tableau, the King and Queen are decked out in gorgeous outfits with huge headdresses covered in feathers, that can weight upward of 40 pounds. These Mardi Gras tableau’s are formal, and by invitation only. One reason the original tableaus were held, was to introduce the area’s debutantes. This still holds true today. Most Mardi Gras krewes have a ROYAL COURT, which consists of Dukes in the men’s krewe, and each Duke has a Goddess. These are local girls from age 16 to 18, who are still in school. The Duke’s have costumes and headdresses that almost equal the Kings. The Goddesses all wear the same style of costume, which is chosen each year by the krewe. In accordance with the King’s wishes, they are very beautiful, but no where near the elaborate scale of the court. The debutante’s are introduced to the King and Queen, and paraded around by their Duke at the tableau.

This is just a little information on the celebration of Mardi Gras. I hope you have enjoyed it. If you have never been to, or seen, a Mardi Gras parade, you don’t know what you are missing. The biggest FREE PARTY IN THE WORLD IS MARDI GRAS.