50 Fun Facts About Hard Mardi Gras

Which two brothers led the explorers who held Louisiana's first recorded Mardi Gras on March 2, 1699?

They marked the day near the mouth of the Mississippi in what is now lower Plaquemines Parish, as an observance of Catholic practice.

Which Frenchman is credited with starting Mobile's Carnival celebration in 1703?

Mobile claims the oldest official Carnival celebration in the United States.

Which Mobile group, formed after a noisy 1831 New Year's parade, inspired the founding of Comus in New Orleans?

Michael Krafft's revellers marched with cowbells, hoes and rakes, and members took the tradition to New Orleans in 1835.

Joe Cain revived Mobile's parade tradition in 1867 riding in what?

He rode with six fellow Civil War veterans, and Joe Cain Day has been celebrated on the Sunday before Mardi Gras since 1966.

The Mistick Krewe of Comus took its name from a masque by which English poet?

Comus was Milton's Lord of Misrule; the krewe even borrowed costumes and floats from Mobile's 1856 Cowbellion parade.

Comus paraded with few interruptions from 1856 until which year, when it stopped parading?

It still holds a tableau ball each year and meets Rex's court at the end of Mardi Gras Day.

Rex was organized in 1872 partly to honour the visit of a Grand Duke from which country?

Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, remembered locally as 'Alexis', was touring America that Carnival season.

Rex's official anthem, 'If Ever I Cease to Love', came from which 1870s musical?

The Grand Duke was fond of Lydia Thompson, the actress who sang it in the show playing in New Orleans at the time.

After an 1892 parade, Rex declared purple, green and gold stood for what, respectively?

Some historians think the colors were first chosen in 1872 simply because they looked good together.

Which krewe, founded in 1872, was the third to hold a tableau ball after Comus and the Twelfth Night Revelers?

The Twelfth Night Revelers date from 1870.

Which krewe, founded in 1882, is the oldest continuously parading old-line krewe in New Orleans?

Comus and Momus stopped parading in the early 1990s, leaving the sea god's krewe with the title.

Louisiana declared Mardi Gras a legal state holiday in which year?

It followed the founding of Rex by three years, as the city's American elite took over Carnival from the Creoles.

A 1979 strike by which group forced official parades to cancel or move to Jefferson Parish?

National Guardsmen kept order but ignored morality laws, and some locals remember it as the best Mardi Gras ever.

Zulu's origins trace to a 1909 vaudeville comedy skit that its founders saw performed by which troupe?

The show was called 'There Never Was and Never Will Be a King Like Me', and the club was formally founded in 1916.

Zulu's president from 1973 to 1988 made it the first integrated parade. What was his nickname?

Roy 'Glap' Glapion Jr. actively recruited professionals, educators and businessmen of every race.

Which restaurateur founded the Krewe of Bacchus in 1968 as one of the first super krewes?

Bacchus was the first krewe to feature celebrities in its parade.

Endymion's first parade rolled on February 4, 1967 in which New Orleans neighborhood?

It moved to its Mid-City route in 1982 and now ends inside the Superdome.

Which attorney founded the all-female Krewe of Muses in 2000?

The krewe first paraded in 2001 and rides a giant fiber-optic red shoe.

Harry Connick Jr. marked the Krewe of Orpheus's 20th anniversary in 2013 with which album?

He founded the krewe in 1993 with his father, Harry Connick Sr., and Sonny Borey.

Until the 1960s, the most common Mardi Gras throw was strings of glass beads made in which country?

Rex began throwing glass beads in the early 20th century; today most plastic beads come from China.

Which two walking parades roll through the Marigny and French Quarter in the weekends before Mardi Gras Day?

Krewe du Vieux is known for its satirical adult humour and its full name is the Krewe du Vieux Carre.

Which Rex parade, themed 'Harvest Queens', was filmed by the American Mutoscope Company?

It is among the earliest surviving footage of Carnival in New Orleans.

Besides Mardi Gras Day, Mardi Gras Indians parade on whose feast day and the Sunday nearest it, 'Super Sunday'?

Saint Joseph's Day is March 19, and the suits shown then can take a year to sew.

Who were the first flambeau carriers in New Orleans night parades?

Before electric lighting the torchbearers were the only way to see the floats after dark.

A New Orleans king cake is a Creole variant of which French Epiphany pastry?

A figurine or bean, the fève, is hidden inside and the finder is crowned with a paper crown.

Which Cajun tradition of masked riders begging for gumbo ingredients descends from the medieval 'fete de la quemande'?

The chase for a live chicken may echo the contests and races of medieval French carnivals.

Which Late Latin expression is the most cited origin of the word 'carnival'?

It means 'remove meat'; 'carne vale' (farewell to meat) is a folk etymology, and some scholars point instead to the Navigium Isidis festival.

Which sixth-century bishop's sermons against pagan practices behind Carnival were later reused by the Synod of Leptines?

His statements around 500 CE became building blocks of the 'small index of superstitious and pagan practices' drafted in 742.

Legend dates the Carnival of Venice to a military victory in 1162 over the patriarch of which city?

It was outlawed under Emperor Francis II in 1797, masks and all, and revived only in 1979.

Under which emperor was the Carnival of Venice outlawed entirely in 1797?

The modern festival was revived in 1979 and now draws about 3 million visitors a year.

The Gilles of Belgium's most famous carnival first appear in 1795 as masked characters defying whose mask ban?

Today's Gilles wear Belgium's red, black and yellow and throw oranges to the crowd.

Rio's samba schools are divided into how many leagues or divisions?

There are more than 200 schools in the city, and the first Rio Carnival was held in 1723.

Cologne's street carnival, 'the crazy days', begins on which day?

Rose Monday is the highlight, with more than a million spectators watching the parade every year.

Maslenitsa falls in which week before Eastern Orthodox Easter?

It corresponds to the Western Sexagesima, because Orthodox Lent begins on a Monday rather than Ash Wednesday.

Since 1950, England's Olney has run its Shrove Tuesday pancake race against which US town?

The Olney race is said to date from 1445, when a housewife ran to church still holding her frying pan.

The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras began as a protest march in which year?

Numerous participants were arrested by New South Wales police that first night; today police march in the parade.

Which French town's church has a 16th-century stained-glass window depicting the feast of the Boeuf Gras?

The 'fatted ox' procession is one of the oldest Carnival traditions, and a papier-mache Boeuf Gras still rides in the Rex parade.

Which venue at Gravier and Saratoga hosted the 1909 show that inspired Zulu's founding?

The skit featured grass skirts, which Zulu members still wear on Mardi Gras Day.

Which documentary examined the racially separate mystic societies of Mobile's Mardi Gras in 2008?

Mobile's oldest mystic society shares the name; the film was directed by Margaret Brown.

Which 1954 recording of 'Mardi Gras Mambo' by a teenage New Orleans R&B group is the best-known version?

Its members included Art Neville, who later co-founded both the Meters and the Neville Brothers.

Before coconuts, what did Zulu riders throw that gave the 'Golden Nugget' its name?

Zulu is thought to have switched to coconuts in the early 1920s after local painter Lloyd Lucus started decorating them.

Which governor signed Louisiana's 1988 'Coconut Bill' shielding Zulu from injury liability?

Zulu had lost its insurance in 1987 after coconut-injury lawsuits; the state law let the tradition resume, with coconuts now handed rather than thrown.

William Story, the first Zulu king in 1909, carried what as his scepter?

His crown was a lard can. Zulu's first decorated float, built on a spring wagon from dry-goods boxes, did not appear until 1915.

Who reigned as the very first Rex in 1872?

Solomon was a Jewish businessman drawn, like most later monarchs, from the rolls of the Boston Club.

Rex floats are built on 19th-century wagons the city of New Orleans once used for what?

Popular legend says the chassis are Civil War cotton wagons, but the organisation itself says otherwise. The floats are still built entirely by hand.

On which day is the identity of Rex, the King of Carnival, traditionally revealed?

The Queen of Carnival, always a current-season debutante, must keep her identity secret until the same day.

Which royal couple made headlines in the 1950s by bowing to Rex and his queen at the Rex ball?

The Rex ball has been televised on New Orleans PBS station WYES-TV every year since 1997.

The Boston Club, from whose ranks Rex royalty is chosen, takes its name from what?

Founded in 1841, it is the third-oldest gentlemen's club in the United States.

Which samba school holds the record for Rio Carnival championships, with 22?

Mangueira holds a different distinction: it is the only school ever named 'super-champion', a one-off title awarded in 1984.

The earliest known North American king cake reference, from 1649, comes from which settlement?

A settler owed the local lord a round cake of the finest white flour each Epiphany eve, with a black bean set in its edge.