Mardi Gras celebrations
New Orleans festivities
Mardi Gras celebrations are festivities marking the day before Lent begins, featuring parades, costumes, masks, and general revelry.
The term typically evokes New Orleans traditions—floats, beads, king cake, and public partying in the French Quarter—though celebrations occur worldwide wherever Catholic calendar observance meets carnival culture: The Mardi Gras celebrations lasted well into the night.
- king cakeCarnival pastry hiding trinket
- floatsRemains on surface
- jestersProfessional court fools
- fleur-de-lisStylized heraldic lily motif
- brass bandsMusical groups of metallic instruments
Cajun music · masquerade balls · confetti · costumes · costume contest · masks · crowns · food stalls · feathers · street vendors · Fat Tuesday · moons · Bourbon Street · French Quarter · live performances · fireworks · throws · beads
Mardi Gras celebrationsfuneral rites
Customs for honoring deceased
memorial services · funerals · Ash Wednesday · Yom Kippur · wakes
Mardi Gras celebrationsLent
Christian fasting season
Ash Wednesday · Lenten fasting · fasting periods · Holy Week · Good Friday
celebration, celebrate, celebrated, celebrates, celebrating, celebrant, celebrants, celebrity, celebrities