Page 32 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - New Orleans

30  INTRODUCING NE W ORLEANS

History of Mardi Gras

Culminating on Mardi Gras – the day before Ash Wednesday –
the Carnival celebrations in New Orleans attract visitors from
across the United States and around the world. Since the
1700s, the period between Twelfth Night (January 6) and
Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, has been celebrated with
lavish balls, presented by private citizen groups known as
“krewes.” Although most balls are private, many krewes also
put on parades, with ornate costumes and floats. These take
place for 10 days before Mardi Gras, with the oldest and
most famous parades on Tuesday itself. Bacchus Kings
The Krewe of Bacchus
has invited Bob Hope, Kirk
Douglas, and Charlton
Heston to be their king.
Rex
This krewe was
founded in 1872 to
organize a spectacle
for Grand Duke Alexis,
a younger son of
Czar Alexander II.

King Cake
The traditional
food of Carnival,
each king cake
contains a small
plastic figure of a
baby, representing
the baby Jesus.

Parade Floats
Each krewe has 14
or more colorful
floats, some still
made of traditional
papier-mâché, that
are pulled through
the city in the parades.

1762 The Spanish 1827 Masquerade 1857 Krewe of 1882 Krewe of
pass a law forbidding balls re-authorized Comus founded at Proteus formed by
slaves to wear masks the Gem Saloon in men from the
the 100-block of Cotton Exchange
Royal Street
1750 1775 1800 1825 1850 1875
1870 The Twelfth Night Revelers
1805 Balls and Krewe formed; the first to
masking banned choose and crown a queen
Old Mardi Gras costume 1872 Krewe of Rex formed

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