Mardigras

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winter months in New
Orleans, where they held lavish parties and masked balls.
The first written reference to Mardi Gras celebrations in
New Orleans appears in a 1781 report of the Spanish
government, which controlled Louisiana. The report
addressed problems that might arise from allowing slaves to
wear masks at the winter festivities. The United States took
control of Louisiana in 1803, and the New Orleans’ city
council banned all masked entertainment three years later.
Enforcement of the law appears to have been erratic. By the
mid-1820s masks and costumes were again legal. The first
documented Mardi Gras parade took place in 1837, and the
parade soon became an annual tradition. However,
outbursts of violence at the parades gave the festivities a
bad name.(“Mardi Gras” Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 99)
Shrove Tuesday immediately precedes Ash
Wednesday and is the last day before Lent. Mardi Gras has
been noted for the elaborate mumming parades and
boisterous parties that ...

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the beginning of the
Mardi Gras, a new organization was formed. It was to
present a parade with floats and torch lights. The
organization called itself “The Mystic Krewe of Comus,”
and it put on a parade of two floats: one carrying a King,
the other showing Satan in a blazing hell. Since that time
only major conflicts have interfered, the Spanish American
war not having been considered “Major.” (The Folklore of American
Holidays pg. 84-97)
Mardi Gras owes its present day exuberance to a
twenty two year old Russian Grand Duke, who was present
only by chance. In 1872 Alexis Alexandrovich Romanov,
brother to the tsar’s heir apparent, was in America
traveling. While in New York he became ...

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