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Mardi Gras

Name: Mardi Gras
Start: 2022-03-01T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2022-03-01T23:59:59-05:00
Location: New Orleans

March 1, 2022

Mardi Gras Newport Living and Lifestyles

Mardi Gras the “Greatest Free Show on Earth!” is a holiday, just like Christmas and Easter. The Carnival season always begins on Jan. 6, which is King’s Day (Feast of the Epiphany). Mardi Gras day (Fat Tuesday), however, is on a different day each year. Fat Tuesday changes every year because Easter Sunday is never on the same Sunday each year. Fat Tuesday is always the day before Ash Wednesday.

Epiphany, January 6, is the official end of the Christmas season, but it also kicks off Carnival season in New Orleans. Although some people use Carnival and Mardi Gras interchangeably, they are actually different things. Carnival is a time to eat, drink and be merry before the rigorous fasting and sacrifice during Lent. It is filled with parades, balls and other celebrations leading up to Mardi Gras, which is French for “Fat Tuesday.” Mardi Gras is always the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. Carnival officially ends at midnight on Fat Tuesday and Lent begins.

Mardi Gras Day is March 1 2022. Fat Tuesday is the last day of the Carnival season as it always falls the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. The official start of Carnival Season is Twelfth Night, January 6.

The first Mardi Gras parade was held in New Orleans on Feb. 24, 1857 by the Krewe of Comus. They began the tradition of presenting a parade with floats and following it with a ball for the krewe and their guests.

Rex, the King of Carnival, selected the Mardi Gras colors and assigned meaning to them in 1892. Purple stands for justice, green for faith, and gold for power.

See below for parade routes and history behind the different parade floats known as krewes.

https://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/parades/krewes