The skinny on Mardi Gras in New Orleans: history, parades, Zulu and Rex, and king cake fun.
You have seen the photos, maybe watch the webcams, but here is the skinny on Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Carnivale, the festive season precedes Lent and has roots stretching back centuries in Catholic Europe. The word itself comes from the Latin carne levare, meaning “to remove meat,” a nod to the fasting and abstinence observed during Lent. Over time, communities created elaborate celebrations to indulge before the solemn season began. Two of the world’s most famous Carnivale traditions still flourish today: the masked elegance of Carnival of Venice and the electrifying samba parades of Rio Carnival. Both events blend pageantry, costuming, music, and public revelry — elements later defining Mardi Gras on the Gulf Coast.
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In the United States, Mardi Gras first took root not in Louisiana but in Mobile. French settlers celebrated the holiday there as early as 1703, marking one of the earliest organized Mardi Gras observances in North America. Mobile’s early mystic societies and parading traditions laid the groundwork for what would evolve into a uniquely American festival. Yet it was downriver in New Orleans where Mardi Gras found its grand stage.
New Orleans embraced and expanded the celebration throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, blending French, Spanish, African, and Caribbean influences into a spectacle unlike any other. By the mid-1800s, organized parades, masked balls, and social clubs known as krewes transformed Mardi Gras into a citywide cultural institution. Today, the season typically begins on Twelfth Night — January 6 — marking the end of the Christmas season and the start of Carnival. From that date through Fat Tuesday, the city hosts dozens of parades; in a typical year, more than 70 processions roll through neighborhoods across the metro area.
Central to the celebration is the Krewe system. Krewes are private social organizations who plan parades, design floats, host balls, and select royalty such as kings and queens. Each krewe has its own history, traditions, and themes. Some, like Rex and Zulu, date back more than a century, while newer groups reflect the city’s evolving cultural landscape. Membership is often selective, and krewe identities are closely tied to neighborhood pride and social networks.
Fat Tuesday, the final and most anticipated day of Mardi Gras, carries its own traditions. Only two parades roll in New Orleans on the day: the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club and the Krewe of Rex. Zulu, known for its hand-decorated floats and prized painted coconuts, represents African American cultural heritage and community philanthropy. Rex, founded in 1872, crowns the symbolic King of Carnival and established the city’s official Mardi Gras colors: purple for justice, green for faith, and gold for power.
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No Mardi Gras season is complete without king cake, a ring-shaped pastry decorated in those same royal colors. Inside each cake is a tiny plastic baby, and tradition holds whoever finds it must host the next king cake party. Bakeries across the city produce thousands each day during Carnival, making the dessert as central to the season as beads and brass bands.
At the stroke of midnight on Fat Tuesday, the revelry ends. Police clear the streets, bars close, and the city symbolically shifts from indulgence to reflection. Ash Wednesday dawns, Lent begins, and New Orleans returns to its everyday rhythm — at least until Carnival comes again.
