Dates and Origins of Mardi Gras

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Mardi Gras Dates in 2024, 2025 and 2026

Mardi Gras is celebrated at the following dates:

• Tuesday, February 13, 2024
• Tuesday, March 4, 2025
• Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Mardi Gras is celebrated on the day before Ash Wednesday and 47 days before Easter¹. This can fall on any Tuesday between February 3 and March 10¹.

Mardi Gras is a direct translation from the French “fat Tuesday.” This holiday celebrates the final night of eating rich, fatty foods before the season of lent, which involves 40 days of fasting².

Origin

Mardi Gras first appeared in the United States in the late 17th century when King Louis XIV sent Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville to defend the French territory of Louisianne³⁴. This territory covered modern day Alabama, Louisianna, Mississippi and parts of Eastern Texas as well as 12 other states⁵.

The explorers sailed up the mouth of the Missippi river on March 2, 1699 and by the next day were in what is current day New Orleans on that Mardi Gras in March⁴. The nearby tributary thus became Bayou Mardi Gras and the point of landing was Point du Mardi Gras⁶. By 1703, French settlers celebrated the first official Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama⁷.

Celebration

Mardi Gras involves wearing masks, costumes, dancing, parades, debauchery and overturning social conventions⁸⁹. The most well known Mardi Gras celebration happens annually in New Orleans, where they celebrate between the Christian holiday of Epiphany, starting January 6, and ending the day before Ash Wednesday⁸. Here, celebrations include parades every day for two weeks before Mardis Gras, though the largest occur on the last five days before Ash Wednesday¹⁰.

Throws, or long strings of beads, are traditionally thrown into the crowd⁸. Laws that ban masks to be worn in public are suspended for the final day of Mardis Gras¹¹. Dabloons are large coins made of wood or metal that are often thrown into the crowd alongside various beads⁸. Flambeaux carriers carry large torches as a form a performance art during the festivities⁸. Bystanders traditionally hand these carriers quarters as a token of gratitude, but today dollar bills are more common. The king of the Carnival, Rex, is elected every year by the Krewes that sponsor the parades¹².