Visit How to Have a Mardi Gras Party for information on how to plan a Mardi Gras party. Information about adult parties, teenager/prom parties, and children's parties are available.

Mardi Gras day in 2008 is February 5. Mardi Gras Day (which is also Fat Tuesday) is the last day of the Mardi Gras Carnival season. Mardi Gras day falls on a different day each year. It is always 46 days before Easter.

Almost all of the Mardi Gras parades begin with the King and Queen leading the parade. They are followed by many floats, which carry the members of the krewe. The krewe members throw "trinkets or throws" to the crowds lining the streets. These throws can be doubloons with the krewes insignia on them, beads, cups, etc. Many of these items become collectibles each year. The crowd scrambles for the throws while yelling "throw me something mister!"

Admission to the traditional balls held is by invitation only. Most invitations are non-transferable. You can read a short narrative of a Carnival Ball and see pictures online.

Mardi Gras officially starts at Twelfth Night, which occurs 12 days after Christmas on January 6th. There are several celebrations around the city, and it is a great day here in New Orleans. It means for us King Cake Lovers, that the bakeries around town will have King Cake for sale!!!!. Where can I find information about the parade schedule, and the parade routes? We have posted the tentative Mardi Gras parade schedule for 2008. Yes.

Mardi Gras is New Orleans' most famous and biggest holiday season. New Orleans and Mardi Gras are so linked in public perception that it sometimes comes as a surprise that the holiday didn't originate here. But New Orleans and Mardi Gras have put their stamp on one another over the centuries, to the extent that there is some sense of the spirit of Mardi Gras year-round, reflected in every festival and party in the city. First, some definitions.

By all means, but be picky where you take them. Unless you want to answer uncomfortable questions, you should never take a child down Bourbon Street. If you want to make the French Quarter frenzy part of your Mardi Gras party, make plans for a babysitter. That being said, any authentic New Orleanian will be glad to talk your ear off about childhood Mardi Gras memories that make Carnival sound as wholesome as Christmas morning.

Again, as there is no official Mardi Gras ruling organization, there is no official theme. In the New Orleans area, each parading organization sets its own theme - sometimes kept secret until the parade - and non-parading krewes set themes for their balls. In 2003, as we prepared for war in Iraq, patriotic themes were common.

Carnival officially begins in New Orleans on the Feast of Epiphany, or Twelfth Night - Jan. 6 - and continues until the midnight of Fat Tuesday - Mardi Gras - the day before Ash Wednesday.

You can buy them from me. Send cash. Check in at the "will call" desk at the airport. We have a limited-time, internet-only special that includes entrance to ALL parades, plus all the beads you can catch. OK, obviously your exposure to Mardi Gras is limited to "Girls Gone Naughty" and the Dubuque High School homecoming. So let's get it straight: Mardi Gras is a HOLIDAY. Like Christmas. Or Halloween. Anyone can create Mardi Gras events - and charge for them, or not.

A parka and suntan oil. Seriously, Mardi Gras can occur at the end of what we call winter all the way to late spring. Generally that means the best chance for "nice" weather that you get in New Orleans. Moderate highs, cooler evenings. But it's also a season where we have rapid changes and often-extreme weather. Mardi Gras 1998, for example, started with chilly, rainy weather that included a "hurricane-like" storm, as The Times-Picayune headlined it, and ended with broiling sunburn days.

mentioned above, Mardi Gras really kicks into high gear the last two weeks. The height of the party - including the most famous parades and other activities - is the last long five-day weekend, from Friday through Fat Tuesday. For 2007, this means Feb. 16-20. The weekend before that also offers a packed selection of parades and plenty of partying in the Quarter, and may be preferable if you're not sure about the whole Mardi Gras thing. Mardi Gras involves big, big rowdy crowds.

If you've ever been on Bourbon Street on Mardi Gras, as a drunken mob gathers around a Golden Calf beating drums and blowing horns and shouting "Hail to the Calf!", you won't need to ask that question. There is no doubt that the period of celebration that we call Carnival has roots in pagan end-of-winter and beginning-of-spring rituals reaching back thousands of years.

OK, Let's get it straight: Mardi Gras is a HOLIDAY. Like Christmas. Or Halloween. Anyone can create Mardi Gras events. Home | News | Sports | Forums | Blogs | Multimedia | Entertainment | Jobs | Autos | Real Estate | Classifieds

Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday. It comes from the word "shriving" meaning confession and absolution. Traditionally, this was a day when Christians would confess their sins in preparation for Lent. It is a custom to eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. This probably originates from the ingredients of pancakes: oil, eggs, and butter, which were forbidden during Lent. Pancakes were an easy and convenient way of getting them out of the house before Lent.

Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is a month-long celebration that culminates in the world's most spectacular gay parade. That's followed by an all-night Mardi Gras party of about 25,000 people, as well as dozens of other parties at various locales around Sydney. We include tickets for premier seating at the official Mardi Gras parade.