Who Had the First Mardi Gras: Louisiana or Alabama?

🐊 KNGT 🐊 | Louisiana — Okay, everyone. Here comes the thing people argue about during Mardi Gras season. Who really started the first one in America? Was it Louisiana or Alabama? People from Louisiana often claim it first, but rarely stop to wonder otherwise. Beads float through New Orleans, followed by music and crowds. Parades come alive with color, yet something else lingers beneath the surface. You see king cake popping up in cafes and homes too. Still, that doesn’t wrap things up neatly.

Who held the First Mardi Gras Celebration?

According to NewOrleansMardiGras.com... New Orleans is not where Mardi Gras began. Mobile holds that honor. True story. Alabama. I know this sounds funny, but hear me out, I did some research.

Some Mardi Gras traces back to medieval Europe. From Rome through Venice then into France, feasts marked turning points. The royal Bourbon family of France carried such customs far beyond courts. Among them stood Boeuf Gras, not just a term, but a name given to a young calf raised fat and ready. A grand finale, that’s what it came down to, just ahead of Lent’s beginnin’.

That evening in early spring, March 2nd, 1699 feels like a quiet moment until ships appear just off the southern edge of what has now become New Orleans. About 60 miles from the gulf, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville guided his crew through the swamp. With the next day staring Lent, he stop at an opening in the trees, and this is where it started. They called it Pointe du Mardi Gras, because feasting begins here just before fasting takes hold with the start of Lent.

Move up a few years to around 1702, Bienville started a post called Fort Louis de la Louisiane. Over time it turned into what we now call Mobile. After that things led up to something major happening.

Back then, in 1703, Mobile barely had a hundred people living there. Still, that place kicked off what many call the original U.S. Mardi Gras. Not the kind of thing you see today, no massive parade floats. Also, no crowds catching shimmering strands out of midair. Yet, by any name, it counted as Mardi Gras.

Mobile by 1704 hosted a hidden group known as Masque de la Mobile. Doesn’t that name ring a bell? It’s where the concept took shape, similar to what now becomes part of Mardi Gras, those organized krewes. Back in 1710, the Boeuf Gras Society came into being, hosting annual processions for over 150 years. A massive bull’s head led each route on the way to Fat Tuesday.

Later on, that’s when New Orleans began taking shape. Founded in 1718, its roots already stretched into the 1730s, where people boldly marked Mardi Gras, no massive parades then. During the 1740s, elegant gatherings with music and masks emerged, quietly shaping what those world-famous balls look like now.

Only in the 1830s did street parades begin gaining attention. Around 1856 is whenever Mistick Krewe of Comus introduced Mardi Gras Floats. Because of this, Mardi Gras slowly turned into what we all know it is today.

Truth is, Louisiana brought Mardi Gras into the spotlight. Still, it was Alabama where everything began.