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What happens during Mardi Gras? Here’s what you need to know about how Fat Tuesday is celebrated and what it means:
Now is the time for Mardi Gras celebrations.
The Carnival season will end on Tuesday with parades, glitzy beads, and people wearing masks.
Mardi Gras is a holiday that people everywhere celebrate. It comes from the way Christians used to do things. In the United States, Mardi Gras is a big part of the culture in New Orleans, where the biggest parties are.
In 2021, because of the pandemic, the city’s famous parades had to be put on hold. In 2022, they were back in full swing for the second year in a row.
WalletHub says that more than 1 million people have come to the city for Mardi Gras.
When is Mardi Gras?
In French, Mardi Gras is called “Fat Tuesday,” which is on February 21. The next day is Ash Wednesday, which is the start of Christian Lent, a time of fasting and abstinence that leads up to the Easter holiday. Britannica.com says that the name “Fat Tuesday” comes from the custom of eating all the fats in the house before the start of Lent.
New Orleans has the most famous Mardi Gras party in the United States. On the website for Mardi Gras New Orleans, it says that events have been happening since January 6, which is Twelfth Night and the official start of Carnival season.
On Tuesday, the streets of the city will be filled with bands and floats made by local social clubs called “krewes.” People on floats are throwing small objects to the crowds.This has been done since the 1870s. People often “throw” things like beads, cups, coins, and stuffed animals.
Krewes plan their own parades and put them on. The Rex (King) Parade is one of the most popular Mardi Gras events. One of the oldest Mardi Gras organisations in New Orleans, the illustrious Rex Krewe, is in charge of organising it.
The official colours of Mardi Gras, according to the website for Mardi Gras in New Orleans, are purple, green, and gold. Because of the Rex Krewe, these colours came to be. In the Rex Parade, there are hundreds of riders and the “Rex,” or “king of the krewe.”
On the city’s Mardi Gras website, it says that every year a new king is chosen to lead the parades.
The name of the new king is kept secret until the day before Mardi Gras, which is called Lundi Gras. Rex usually takes the lead in the city.
When is Mardi Gras? Where does it happen?
Mardi Gras New Orleans says that the first city in the modern United States to celebrate Mardi Gras was Mobile, Alabama, in 1703.
Other important events in the US during Mardi Gras are:
Louisiana’s Baton Rouge
Coastal Mississippi
Galveston, TX
Pensacola, Florida
San Diego, California
St. Louis, Missouri
What are “King Cakes”?
The King Cake is also called the Twelfth Day Cake because it is eaten on Epiphany, a Christian holiday that remembers when the Magi came to see Jesus 12 days after Christmas.
The Southern Food and Beverage Museum says that the special cake is eaten all through Carnival.
Most of the time, a small plastic or porcelain baby is baked into the cake. Tradition says that whoever finds the trinket in their piece of King Cake has to host the next King Cake party.
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