Every year, thousands of people fill the streets of New Orleans for merry-making, bead-sharing and risqué parades, all in the name of Mardi Gras.
– Mardi Gras, French for Fat Tuesday, falls on the day before Ash Wednesday, which marks the start of Lent, the Catholic season of fasting and repentance. Mardi Gras is preceded by the Carnival season.
– Carnival season officially begins Jan. 6, the Twelfth Night, or Feast of Epiphany, which is the 12th night after Christmas and considered the day the three kings visited the Christ child.
– In 1582, Pope Gregory XII made Mardi Gras official as the last day of partying before Ash Wednesday by putting it on the Gregorian calendar. However, the holiday has its roots thousands of years before in pagan end-of-winter/start of spring festivals.
– North America’s first Mardi Gras is believed to have been March 3, 1699, when French explorer Pierre LeMoyne and his companions had a spontaneous party near the mouth of the
Mississippi River. They set up camp at a place, which they called Pointe Du Mardi Gras.
– By the early 1740s, the governor of New Orleans was hosting fancy Carnival balls in what was then a French colony.
– The first documented “parade” was in 1837, when a group of costumed revelers walked the streets of New Orleans. Currently, more than 70 parades occur during the Carnival season.
– Carnival colors are purple, green and gold, which were chosen in 1872 and got their official meanings in 1892: purple for justice, green for faith and gold for power.
Source: www.nola.com/mardigras/about

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