Q 01/05

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

A) La Salle and Tonti

B) Iberville and Bienville

C) Marquette and Joliet

D) Cadillac and Crozat

Answer · why

B) Iberville and Bienville

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

Q 02/05

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

A) Nicholas Langlois

B) Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne

C) Antoine Crozat

D) Pierre Le Moyne

Answer · why

A) Nicholas Langlois

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

Q 03/05

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

A) Order of Myths

B) Cowbellion de Rakin

C) Strikers Independent

D) Infant Mystics

Answer · why

B) Cowbellion de Rakin

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

Q 04/05

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

A) A borrowed hearse

B) A decorated charcoal wagon

C) A cotton cart

D) A rowboat on wheels

Answer · why

B) A decorated charcoal wagon

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

Q 05/05

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

A) Ben Jonson

B) John Dryden

C) Edmund Spenser

D) John Milton

Answer · why

D) John Milton

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