Fat Tuesday: What Is Mardi Gras, And Where Did It Really Start? (2024)

Mardi Gras translates to "Fat Tuesday," which is March 1, 2022. You may think it started in New Orleans, but that's not true.

Posted Tue, Mar 1, 2022 at 8:57 am ET|Updated Tue, Mar 1, 2022 at 10:35 am ET

In fact, while Louisiana is the only state to formally recognize Mardi Gras as a holiday, Mobile and Baldwin counties in Alabama do as well. Kids are off school, and many businesses are shuttered.

Mardi Gras itself is intended to be a day of indulgence and even some debauchery before the beginning of Lent, a time of fasting and abstinence in Catholicism and some other Christian denominations.

Fat Tuesday is also the conclusion of Mardi Gras, a centuries-old tradition celebrated by the French with elaborate masquerade balls and street parties from the feast of the Epiphany in early January until Ash Wednesday. Parading societies from New Orleans and through Biloxi and into Mobile have been hosting balls for weeks.

Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras celebrations are a last opportunity to cut loose before the Lenten season begins with Ash Wednesday and other holy days through Good Friday and Easter on April 17.

Mardi Gras traces its roots to the Port City by about a decade. “Apparently, as early 1703, the French held a type of Mardi Gras celebration in Mobile,” said Donnelly Lancaster Walton, an archivist at the University of Alabama, to history.com. “New Orleans wasn’t founded until 1718. Therefore, strictly speaking, Mobile had the earliest celebration of the two cities."

Mardi Gras was observed for the first time in the New World by French pioneers at Twenty-Seven Mile Bluff, the first settlement of Mobile, according to the Mobile Carnival Museum.

It wasn't until 1711 that carnival came to be in its current fashion, with the parades and sparkles.

Papiér-maché bull, in honor of Boeuf Gras (another name for Mardi Gras), is pulled down Dauphin Street in Mobile in what is believed to have been the first carnival “parade” in North America, states the museum.

The first continually parading society, the Order of Myths, was founded in 1867.

What About King Cake?

There is also a lot of religious sentiment involved in Mardi Gras desserts.

Depending on where you live (and your palate), you may observe Fat Tuesday as Pancake Day, which originated in the United Kingdom; Faschnaut Day, a tradition in German communities; and Paczki Day in Polish enclaves. Both faschnaut and paczki translate to “doughnuts.”

King cakes are also eaten, though according to legend, these cakes frequently appear from the Epiphany on Jan. 6 through Fat Tuesday to mark the arrival of the three wise men to Bethlehem to deliver gifts to the newborn Jesus. A plastic baby is often hidden inside the cakes.

What Happens On Ash Wednesday?

In Roman Catholic churches, ashes are applied in the shape of a cross on the foreheads of the faithful. In many cases, they wear the crosses throughout the day to publicly profess their faith.

The ashes symbolize penance, mourning and mortality. Typically, the priest will apply the ashes while saying, “Remember you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.”

The ashes are prepared by burning palm leaves from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebration, which falls every year on the Sunday before Easter.

Other Christians observing Ash Wednesday include Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians and other Protestants. Some Baptists observe Ash Wednesday, but a majority of evangelical and Pentecostal Christians do not. Mormons also do not observe Ash Wednesday.

Lent Leads Up To Holy Week

In Western Christianity, the last week of Lent is known as Holy Week.

It begins on Palm Sunday, this year on April 10, the day commemorating Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. The path he traveled was covered in palm branches, and congregants in many churches are given palms to carry with them to Palm Sunday worship services.

Here are other important dates to know:

April 14: Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday, commemorating the Last Supper, the final meal Jesus shared with his disciples.

April 15: Good Friday observes Christ’s crucifixion. In some churches, purple or black cloths are placed over religious objects. Some Christians fast, eating only one substantial meal.

April 17: Lent ends with Easter, which commemorates Christ’s resurrection, and white cloths replace the darker cloths shrouding religious objects. Celebrations are joyous, a contrast to the somber observance of Lent.

Happy Mardi Gras!