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Event Information:
Mardi Gras is a huge celebration
right across the US, and nowhere
more so than in Louisiana, where New
Orleans provides the main focus of
events.
Watch the New Orleans Mardi
Gras parades live streaming online
New
Orleans Mardi Gras Louisiana,
is a Carnival celebration well-known
throughout the world. The New
Orleans Carnival season, with roots
in preparing for the start of the
Christian season of Lent, starts
after Twelfth Night, on Epiphany. It is a season of
parades, balls (some of them
masquerade balls), and king cake
parties. It has traditionally been
part of the winter social season; at
one time "coming out" parties for
young women at débutante balls were
timed for this season.
Celebrations are concentrated for
about two weeks before and through
Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras in French),
the day before Ash Wednesday.
Usually there is one major parade
each day (weather permitting); many
days have several large parades. The
largest and most elaborate parades
take place the last five days of the
season. In the final week of
Carnival, many events large and
small occur throughout New Orleans
and surrounding communities. The
parades in New Orleans are organized
by Carnival krewes.
The
celebration of Mardi Gras was
brought to Louisiana by early French
settlers. The first record of the
holiday being celebrated in
Louisiana was at the mouth of the
Mississippi River in what is now
lower Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana,
on March 3, 1699. Iberville,
Bienville, and their men celebrated
it as part of an observance of
Catholic practice. Each year the
Mardi Gras (or Carnival) season
starts on January 6, also known as
Twelfth Night. The Twelfth Night
Revelers, one of Carnival's oldest
Krewes, holds a masked ball each
year to mark the occasion. Many of
Carnival's oldest groups such as the
Elves of Oberon and the High Priests
of Mithras hold masked balls, but do
not parade in public.
The
parade season starts off some three
weekends before Mardi Gras Day with
the Krewe du Vieux parade. There is
usually at least one parade every
night starting two Fridays before
Mardi Gras. Uptown, the Zulu parade
rolls first, followed by the Rex
parade, which both end on Canal
Street. A number of smaller parading
organizations with "truck floats"
follow the Rex parade.
Numerous smaller parades and walking
clubs also parade around the city.
The Jefferson City Buzzards, the
Lyons Club, Pete Fountain's Half
Fast Walking Club and the KOE all
start early in the day Uptown and
make their way to the French Quarter
with at least one jazz band. At the
other end of the old city, the
Society of Saint Anne journeys from
the Bywater through Marigny and the
French Quarter to meet Rex on Canal
Street. The Pair-O-Dice Tumblers
rambles from bar to bar in Marigny
and the French Quarter from noon to
dusk. Various groups of Mardi Gras
Indians, divided into uptown and
downtown tribes, parade in their
finery.
Local
Weather:
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