New Orleans Mardi Gras - Mardi Gras New Orleans

Mardi Gras (French for "Fat Tuesday") is the day before Ash Wednesday, and is also called "Shrove Tuesday" or "Pancake Day". It is the final day of Carnival (English:IPA: [ka?n?v?l] and Romance languages:IPA: [karnaval]). It is a celebration that is held just before the beginning of the Christian liturgical season of Lent. The feast should not be confused with the Swedish Fettisdagen (Fat Tuesday) or the Polish Tlusty Czwartek (which translates to Fat Thursday).

1 Dates
2 Mardi Gras and The Rio de Janeiro Carnival
3 Locations
3.1 United States
3.1.1 Louisiana
3.1.1.1 New Orleans
3.1.2 New Roads
3.1.2.1 Lafayette
3.1.2.2 Elsewhere in Louisiana
3.1.3 Galveston
3.1.4 Mobile
3.1.5 Pensacola
3.1.6 St. Louis
3.1.7 Port Arthur
3.1.8 San Diego
3.1.9 San Luis Obispo
3.2 Brazil
3.3 Caribbean
3.4 Mexico
3.5 Belgium
3.6 Sydney
3.7 Venice
4 Mardi Gras in popular culture

Dates
The date can vary from February 3 to March 9 in non-leap years or February 4 to March 9 in leap years. Like Lent, the date is dependent on that of Easter.
Mardi Gras falls on the following dates in the following years:
2007 – February 20
2008 – February 5
2009 – February 24
2010 – February 16
2011 – March 8
2012 – February 21
2013 – February 12
2014 – March 4

Mardi Gras and The Rio de Janeiro Carnival
The annual Carnival that is held at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil also has relations with the Mardi Gras. Actually the celebrations of the Carnival ends on "Mardi Gras". This festival is an annual event that is held 2 weeks before the traditional Christian fasting of Lent. Thousands of people from across Brazil and also from other parts of the world come to attend the festivities. Carnival comes with a lot of music, good food, color and of course the Samba dance. And of course there is the Mardi Gras, that becomes an added attraction.Mardi Gras and The Rio de Janeiro Carnival

Locations
Float-making in New OrleansPerhaps the cities most famous for their Mardi Gras celebrations include New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro, Venice, Bahia, and Mazatlán. Many other places have important Mardi Gras celebrations as well. The carnival is an important celebration in most of Europe, and in many parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.
United States
While not observed nationally throughout the United States, a number of cities and regions in the country have notable celebrations.
Mardi Gras arrived in North America with the LeMoyne brothers, Iberville and Bienville, in the late 17th century, when King Louis XIV sent the pair to defend France's claim on the territory of Louisiana, which included Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
The explorers eventually found the mouth of the Mississippi River, sailed a while upstream and named the spot Point du Mardi Gras (Mardi Gras Point). The traditional Catholic celebration ensued leading to what many refer to as North America's first Mardi Gras; thus, the French province of Louisiana has the claim to the first Mardi Gras; Mobile would become the official capital of the Province in 1704.
Carnival celebrations became an annual event highlighted by lavish balls and masked spectacles. Some were small, private parties with select guest lists, while others were raucous, public affairs.
Lately Mardi Gras has been taken up by several cities in the U.S. as the event brings much needed revenue to city coffers.

Louisiana

New Orleans
Main article: New Orleans Mardi Gras
Costumed musicians, French Quarter, New OrleansNew Orleans Mardi Gras is particularly well-known, often called "the greatest free show on earth". The celebrations draw many tourists to the city in addition to the celebrating locals for the parties and parades. Most tourists can be found within the French Quarter, especially Bourbon Street.
Mardi Gras came to New Orleans with the earliest French settlers. New Orleans developed new traditions, including Krewes such as the Krewe du Vieux, the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club, and the famous Rex parade, in addition to Mardi Gras Indians and king cake parties.
There are as many as 60 Krewes that have parades in the greater New Orleans area. Officially, the Mardi Gras season, more properly called Carnival, starts at the end of the twelfth day of Christmas. Most parades, balls and other festivities occur on weeknights and weekends in the 2-week period before Mardi Gras Day. Though each parade is unique, there are certain common ingredients: 1) either a King or Queen who reigns over the parade, picked from the Krewe membership; 2) gaily colored floats, ridden by Krewe members, who throw various items, including bead necklaces (beads), doubloons with the Krewe emblem and often, that year's parade's theme, and assorted other fun items; 3) marching bands, usually from high schools and universities, but often other invited guest bands.
Particularly since the inception of the larger parade organizations (sometimes called "super krewes") such as Bacchus and Endymion, it has become fashionable to invite Hollywood and other celebrities to act as Grand Marshals for parades.

New Roads
New Roads, Louisiana hosts the state's oldest Mardi Gras celebration outside New Orleans. This historic and charming Creole town of 5,500, located 35 minutes northwest of Baton Rouge on False River, attracts as many as 75,000 people each Shrove Tuesday for a family-friendly celebration. The Community Center Carnival Club parade, founded in 1922 and Louisiana's oldest outside New Orleans, rolls at 11 a.m. The New Roads Lions Carnival parade, founded in 1941 and which is staged as a charitable fundraiser, rolls at 1:30 p.m. Each parade consists of 25-30 floats built fresh each year, eight-ten marching bands and drill units and tons of trinket "throws" including beads, cups and small toys. Unlike the exclusiveness of formal krewes, New Roads' parade particiaption is open to the public, with schools, churches, clubs, businesses and families building and riding the floats. The Mardi Gras in New Roads, Louisiana website: [1] contains history and images of this unique Mardi Gras event.

Lafayette
Lafayette, Louisiana is home to a large Mardi Gras celebration which attracts about 250,000 parade-goers for seven parades during the Carnival season. An annual event since 1934, it is generally a family-oriented event lacking the perceived decadence of its New Orleans cousin. Lafayette is geographically the heart of Cajun Country, and as such draws Cajuns and Creoles from all of the surrounding area to participate in Mardi Gras festivities. Hollywood celebrities have served as Grand Marshals. Visitors enjoy the Cajun hospitality and cuisine. Lafayette's population is approximately 90% Catholic which contributes to the popularity of Mardi Gras.

Elsewhere in Louisiana
Mardi Gras is a legal holiday in Louisiana. Other places in the New Orleans metropolitan area also have celebrations; notably the suburbs of Metairie, La Place and Chalmette has large parades. Without the restrictions on commercial sponsorship of parades seen in Orleans Parish, there is much advertising and trademark placements on the parades in Metairie. Metairie parades also tend to be more family-oriented, and even include a children's parade.
Houma, Louisiana hosts a significant Mardi Gras celebration of nine parades which draw about 70,000 spectators each year. Mardi Gras has been observed annually in Houma since 1947. Nearby Thibodaux, Louisianahas celebrated Mardi Gras since 1954. There, the Carnival calendar includes five parades. Many other cities and towns throughout southern Louisiana have Mardi Gras parades in the weeks leading up to Shrove Tuesday and some also on that day. These communities include Golden Meadow, Lockport, Grand Isle, Morgan City, Berwick, Patterson, Jeanerette, Grand Marais, New Iberia, St. Martinville, Franklin, Sunset, Opelousas, Baton Rouge, Port Allen, Addis, Livonia and Maringouin. .
In parts of the Cajun country of southwestern Louisiana, the traditional Courir du Mardi Gras (French - Running of the Mardi Gras) is still run, sometimes by maskers on horseback led by "Le Capitaine" who gather ingredients for making the communal meal (usually a gumbo). The townspeople will gather in costume and move from home to home requesting ingredients for the night's meal. The requested homeowner may comply with their wishes, usually by giving some form of vegetable or live animal, such as a chicken or pig, to the members of the run. The homeowner will often release the animal and make the runners catch it. In many cases, if the homeowner refuses to give an ingredient, the runners will steal one. These Courir can be witnessed in Church Point, Louisiana, Eunice, Mamou, Louisiana, Ville Platte, and Elton, Louisiana. The costumes used in these events are often homemade, employing sheets, paints, and frequently masks of wire mesh, as well as traditional conical hats known as capuchons.
There are also Mardi Gras parades in Northern Louisiana in Shreveport, Louisiana by the Krewe of Centaur and the Krewe of Gemini and in Monroe and West Monroe by the Krewe of Janus. Lake Charles, in southwest Louisiana, hosts a Krewe of Krewes parade, which is the second largest parade in the state. It also hosts parades for children and even pets. Alexandria also celebrates with parades and days of celebration.
Mardi Gras is one of the exceptions to the Louisiana law against wearing hoods and masks in public, the other two being Halloween and religious beliefs.

Galveston
Galveston Mardi GrasGalveston, Texas is home to a large Mardi Gras festival, the Island tradition begun in 1867, and which is held in the historic Strand District on Galveston Island on the Texas Gulf Coast. The first year that Mardi Gras was celebrated on a grand scale in Galveston was 1871 with the emergence of two rival Mardi Gras societies, or "Krewes" called the Knights of Momus (known only by the initials "K.O.M.") and the Knights of Myth, both of which devised night parades, masked balls, exquisite costumes and elaborate invitations. The Knights of Momus, led by some prominent Galvestonians, decorated horse-drawn wagons for a torch lit night parade. Boasting such themes as "The Crusades," "Peter the Great," and "Ancient France," the procession through downtown Galveston culminated at Turner Hall with a presentation of tableaux and a grand gala. The annual event draws half a million revelers from all over Texas (predominately the Houston metro) to Galveston Island each year.

Mobile
Mobile, Alabama has the longest tradition of observing Mardi Gras in North America, with the Celebration of Mardi Gras in Mobile dating back to 1703, and detailed by the Mardi Gras Museum in downtown Mobile [^MOBCOM]. Celebrations were halted with the American Civil War, but were revived with a parade by Joe Cain in 1866, whose memory is still honored each Carnival (see: the Joe Cain Parade, including his honorary "Merry Widows"). The Mobile Mardi Gras season has always been concluded by the Order of Myths (OOM) parade, produced by the society of the same name. This is a special honor, because the 'double-O M's' are one of the oldest continuously parading Mardi Gras society in America. Throughout each parade, mystic maskers have thrown trinkets, candy, beads (bead necklaces), toys, stuffed animals, commemorative stamped coins, and Moon Pies, a sweet baked good that combines a graham cracker like crust with marshmallow and is then covered in a flavored frosting (typically chocolate, banana, or strawberry). The oldest mystic society is the Striker's Independent Society, formed in 1843.
Events: On February 28, 2006, Mobile had what is believed to be the largest Mardi Gras celebration in its history, with more than 244,000 revelers packing the downtown area on Fat Tuesday.

Pensacola
Pensacola, Florida hosts a Mardi Gras Celebration. The Pensacola celebrations also use Moon Pies in combination with beads, coins, and small candies. Pensacola holds two Mardi Gras parades a year. A smaller parade is held on the Friday night before Mardi Gras with the much larger Pensacola Grand Mardi Gras Parade held on Saturday during the day. The surrounding island cities also hold their own parades.

St. Louis
Soulard hosts the St. Louis Mardi Gras festival, generally attracting between 500,000 and 600,000 people and growing each year[citation needed]. The event is much like the New Orleans celebration in that it hosts several parades during the Mardi Gras season. On the second Saturday before Mardi Gras, there is a family-oriented "Krewe of Barkus" pet parade. Participants consist of anyone who dresses up their pet in costume, and walks their pet along the parade route. The parade is followed by the informal Wiener dog races. Then, on the Saturday before Fat Tuesday, the more adult-oriented flesh-for-beads parade occurs, although there have been various attempts to reserve a family section at one end of the route. People from all over come to storm the streets with beers and bead necklaces after the Saturday parade. The streets of Soulard, Geyer, Allen, Russell, Anne, Shenandoah, and others are crowded with people from 7th to 12th Street. The Fat Tuesday parade occurs in the evening, and in recent years has been moved just north of Soulard to downtown St. Louis.[citation needed]

Port Arthur
Port Arthur, Texas Is the home to a very fast-growing Mardi Gras celebration. It began in 1992.[citation needed]

San Diego
As of 2005, there is a corporate sponsored party in the Gaslamp Quarter of downtown San Diego.[citation needed]

San Luis Obispo
Mardi Gras celebrations have been controversial in recent years, with leaders of this Central California city calling for an end to public celebrations in 2005. Civic and university leaders hope to end the event as a state-wide party destination for students. See San Luis Obispo Mardi Gras controversy.

Brazil
In Brazil, the Carnival celebrations in Recife, Olinda, Salvador are well-known, among others, most notably Rio de Janeiro

Caribbean
In the Caribbean, Carnival is celebrated on a number of islands:Aruba, Barbados, Dominica,Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago are some of the celebrants.

Mexico
In Mexico, there are big Carnival celebrations every year in Mazatlán, which has "The third largest Mardi Gras in the world", and Veracruz, which that include the election of a queen and street parades.

Belgium
In Binche the "Mardi Gras" is the most important day of the year and the summit of the Carnival of Binche. Around 1000 Gilles are dancing through the city from 4.00 AM to late hours on traditional carnival songs. In 2003, the Carnival of Binche was proclaimed one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

Sydney
Venice
Along with New Orleans Mardi Gras, and Carnival in Rio de Janeiro the Venetian Carnival is one of the three most famous Mardi Gras/Carnival celebrations in the world. It is a lavish celebration.
Mardi Gras in popular culture
Mardi Gras is a integral to the plot of the Jem TV series episode Mardi Gras.
In the video game Hitman: Blood Money, 47 has to kill three assassins during Carnival in New Orleans.
New Orleans during Carnival season is a playable level in the video game Tony Hawk's Underground 2.
Bam Margera and his friends visit New Orleans in a Season 2 episode of Viva La Bam.
New Orleans during Carnival is a destination in the 1969 movie "Easy Rider".
An episode of The Jamie Kenedy Experiment was filmed on Johnny White's Bourbon St. balcony during Carnival.
For more information on Mardi Gras, please visit Wikipedia.