When was mardi gras started

By the s, Mardi Gras was celebrated openly in New Orleans, but not with the parades we know today. In the early s, Louisiana's governor, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, established elegant society balls, which became the model for the New Orleans Mardi Gras balls of today.

The earliest reference to Mardi Gras "Carnival" appears in a report to the Spanish colonial governing body. By the late s, New Orleans held street processions of maskers with carriages and horseback riders to celebrate Mardi Gras.

Dazzling gaslight torches, or " flambeaux , " lit the way for the krewe's members and lent each event an exciting air of romance and festivity. In , six young Mobile natives formed the Mistick Krewe of Comus , invoking John Milton's hero Comus to represent their organization.

Comus brought magic and mystery to New Orleans with dazzling floats known as tableaux cars and masked balls. Krewe members remained anonymous. This is also the first recorded account of Mardi Gras "throws. Newspapers began to announce Mardi Gras events in advance, and they even printed "Carnival Edition" lithographs of parades' fantastic float designs after they rolled, of course - themes and floats were always carefully guarded before the procession. At first, these reproductions were small, and details could not be clearly seen.

In , six men established a secret group that they named the Mistick Krewe of Comus. From the time of the first Krewe, Mardi Gras continued to grow. More Krewes formed the second of which, the Twelfth Night Revelers, formed in and the celebrations and parades attracted more and more people. Two years after the Revelers formed, Rex, the King of Carnival, was created as a persona to oversee the Mardi Gras daytime parades.

The social clubs that presided over the parades and balls are the ones primarily responsible for the Mardi Gras we know today. So get out there, get a slice of king cake, and get all your revelry in before Lent starts. Article originally published February 28, Last pdated February The First Mardi Gras in the U.

Once Christianity came to Rome, religious leaders tried to blend pagan traditions with Christian traditions for a smoother transition. What resulted was a festival where people drank, feasted, danced, and partied before the abstinent and somber period of Lent began. However, some experts disagree and say that this festivity actually began as a response to the Catholic Church banning sex and meat during Lent.

They say this then lead to people partying and indulging as much as they could before Lent started. In this narrative, experts believe that Church leaders encouraged the rumors of pagan roots in an effort to quell the festivities. Some don't realize that while Mardi Gras is always the Tuesday before Lent, the actual season begins in January. In England, it became known as Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day, which is still popular today you can imagine what they eat. European colonists later brought the huge celebrations to the Americas , where it became Carnival Tuesday in Caribbean nations.

He settled down near present-day New Orleans and brought the tradition with him. Where the first official celebration actually happened, however, is up for constant debate. Some say that Alabama holds the title on a technicality—the city was officially founded over a decade before the Big Easy. In , New Orleans hosted its first Mardi Gras parade. The word originated in France and was what people used to describe the day before Ash Wednesday, when they would binge on rich foods such as meat, eggs, milk, and cheese before Lent began.

Country Life.