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Mardi Gras is the annual Carnival celebration in Mobile, Alabama. It is the oldest official Carnival celebration in the United States, started by Frenchman Nicholas Langlois in 1703 when Mobile was the capital of Louisiana.
Mardi Gras is a celebration that originated in medieval Europe. The name “Mardi Gras” is French for “Fat Tuesday,” referring to the practice of feasting and indulging in rich foods before the start of Lent, a period of fasting and reflection in the Christian tradition.
In the United States, the modern celebration of Mardi Gras has been observed since the late 1700s. The first recorded Mardi Gras celebration took place in 1699, when French-Canadian explorer Jean Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville arrived in the area and held a small celebration to mark the occasion.
Over time, Mardi Gras evolved into a large-scale celebration that includes elaborate parades, masked balls, and street parties. The modern celebration is famous for its colorful floats, ornate costumes, and festive atmosphere, and it attracts thousands of visitors from around the world each year.
While Mardi Gras has changed and evolved over time, it remains an important cultural tradition in many parts of the world and is a celebration of life, community, and good times.
King Cake is a traditional dessert served during Mardi Gras celebrations. The cake is a round, sweet pastry that is often decorated in the colors of Mardi Gras: purple, green, and gold.
The origins of King Cake can be traced back to medieval Europe, where it was served during the Christian celebration of Epiphany, also known as Twelfth Night. The cake was baked to commemorate the visit of the three Wise Men to the baby Jesus and was often shaped into a circle to symbolize the circular journey of the Magi.
In France, the tradition of serving King Cake during the Epiphany celebration eventually made its way to the colonies in the New World, including Louisiana. Over time, the tradition evolved and became associated with Mardi Gras celebrations, and the cake became a staple of the festivities.
Today, King Cake is a beloved dessert and is served throughout the Mardi Gras season, which typically runs from January 6th (Twelfth Night) to Fat Tuesday. The cake is often filled with a variety of sweet fillings, such as cream cheese, fruit, or cinnamon, and a small plastic baby is often hidden inside the cake. Tradition holds that whoever finds the baby in their slice of cake is responsible for buying the next King Cake.
Mardi Gras beads have been popularized for their widespread use on Fat Tuesday. Each year, crowds of people line up to snag as many beaded necklaces as their necks can hold. But where did all of this excitement start?
Mardi Gras parades typically run throughout the Carnival season, which officially begins on January 6 (the Twelfth Night of Christmas). The carnival season ends on Fat Tuesday, the day before the start of Lent.
During the late 1800s, inexpensive necklaces made of glass beads began to be tossed into the crowds by the parade krewes. The beads were an instant hit among the crowds of residents and visiting Mardi Gras tourists. It is believed that a man dressed up as Santa Claus was the first person in a New Orleans parade to use the beads in his costume. Other tourists soon followed his lead and they began to decorate themselves with the bead necklaces.
Traditional Mardi Gras beads are purple, green, and gold colors. The purple symbolizes justice; the green represents faith, and the gold signifies power.
Joe Cain is largely credited with initiating the modern way of observing Mardi Gras and its celebrations in Mobile, Alabama, following the Civil War. In 1868, while Mobile was still under Union occupation, Joe Cain paraded through the streets of Mobile, dressed in improvised costume as a fictional “Chickasaw” chief named Slacabamorinico.
The Sunday before Fat Tuesday, Joe Cain Day is celebrated as part of the scheduled Mardi Gras celebrations in Mobile, with its center being the Joe Cain Procession (never called a parade). This has been called “The People’s Parade” because it is performed by citizens without being run by a specific Mardi Gras krewe. Originally, anybody who showed up at the parade start on Sunday morning could join in with whatever makeshift float they could cobble together.
Eventually, the sheer size and the city’s desire to have all the Carnival parades conform to the same set of rules forced the organizers to limit the participants to a preset limit. The parade is preceded with the visit of the “Cain’s Merry Widows” to the gravesite of their “departed husband”
The Mardi Gras mystic society of Cain’s Merry Widows (a women’s mystic society) was founded in 1974 in Mobile, Alabama, home of the first Mardi Gras in America (1703).
Each Mardi Gras, The ladies, known variously as “The Merry Widows of Joe Cain”, “Joe Cain’s Widows”, or even just as “The Widows” gather on Joe Cain Day (the Sunday before Fat Tuesday), clothed in black mourning clothes with veils, to lay a wreath at Cain’s burial site at Church Street Graveyard, wail over their “departed husband’s” grave, then travel to Joe Cain’s former house on Augusta Street to offer a toast and eulogy to their “Beloved Joe”