Mobile (Alabama) says it started Mardi Gras. What do you say?
I say Mobile is a nice clean little city with good fishing, great museums and interesting Civil War historical sites. Y'all come back now.
Back to Mardi Gras. While this claim is an article of faith among Mobile natives, we can't find that the city makes this claim. Neither does New Orleans. Both cities tap dance around the issue, because in fact, both have bragging rights. In fact, the founding fathers of modern Mardi Gras traditions did not see it as a competition between Mobile and New Orleans, but rather as a cooperative effort between buddies. Both cities have gone through periods when Mardi Gras almost died out, and each has been instrumental in exporting traditions to the other and keeping the fire going.
Neither New Orleans nor Mobile started Mardi Gras, of course.
Carnival/Mardi Gras is a European import, celebrated long before Columbus was a gleam in his Daddy's eye. In fact, long before it was Christianized, it was a pagan bacchanalia of drinking and debauchery . . . which hasn't changed much. Much of Catholic - or formerly Catholic - Europe celebrates Carnival under one name or another, again as a season of partying before Lent, as do many of its former colonies. The early explorers and settlers of both New Orleans and Mobile arrived with a tradition of Mardi Gras and adapted the tradition to their new home.
Historically the first recorded celebration of Mardi Gras in what is now the United States occurred in 1699, on a Mississippi River island just downstream from modern New Orleans. The French explorer who threw the party named the place Mardi Gras Island. He then moved upriver and staked out the site for modern New Orleans. Mobile skeptics say this celebration is disqualified since the city of New Orleans didn't exist, except in the explorer's dreams, but that sounds like sour grapes to us. Mobile's first recorded celebration was in 1704.
In both areas, celebrations took place to varying extents from the very beginning of settlement, picking up additional traditions as new waves of immigrants arrived. Partying in New Orleans, in fact, was at times out of control, which eventually brought crackdowns from the Spanish and new American governments, especially focusing on masking and bawdy street partying. This brought the public celebration of Mardi Gras in New Orleans to a sputter in the early 19th Century. Slowly the Creoles won back permission to expand Mardi Gras celebrations, until masking and street celebrations were again legalized. Mobile stepped into the picture in 1857, when members of the Cowbellian de Rakin Society helped blueblood New Orleans pals set up the Mystic Krewe of Comus, the pioneering parading krewe in the Crescent City. This launched an explosion of new Mardi Gras traditions. What Mobile can accurately claim is a nearly 300-year tradition of organized Mardi Gras celebrations, leadership in the creation of some modern Mardi Gras traditions, and exporting at least one of the most important traditions to New Orleans - the parading krewe.
By the way, you may be interested to know that Gulfport, Mississippi, also claims to have been the site of the first American Mardi Gras. If you take the famous Ship Island excursion ride, you'll find an article from a local newspaper on the wall that claims that Ship Island was the REAL Mardi Gras Island referred to by the explorer.
I say Mobile is a nice clean little city with good fishing, great museums and interesting Civil War historical sites. Y'all come back now.
Back to Mardi Gras. While this claim is an article of faith among Mobile natives, we can't find that the city makes this claim. Neither does New Orleans. Both cities tap dance around the issue, because in fact, both have bragging rights. In fact, the founding fathers of modern Mardi Gras traditions did not see it as a competition between Mobile and New Orleans, but rather as a cooperative effort between buddies. Both cities have gone through periods when Mardi Gras almost died out, and each has been instrumental in exporting traditions to the other and keeping the fire going.
Neither New Orleans nor Mobile started Mardi Gras, of course.
Carnival/Mardi Gras is a European import, celebrated long before Columbus was a gleam in his Daddy's eye. In fact, long before it was Christianized, it was a pagan bacchanalia of drinking and debauchery . . . which hasn't changed much. Much of Catholic - or formerly Catholic - Europe celebrates Carnival under one name or another, again as a season of partying before Lent, as do many of its former colonies. The early explorers and settlers of both New Orleans and Mobile arrived with a tradition of Mardi Gras and adapted the tradition to their new home.
Historically the first recorded celebration of Mardi Gras in what is now the United States occurred in 1699, on a Mississippi River island just downstream from modern New Orleans. The French explorer who threw the party named the place Mardi Gras Island. He then moved upriver and staked out the site for modern New Orleans. Mobile skeptics say this celebration is disqualified since the city of New Orleans didn't exist, except in the explorer's dreams, but that sounds like sour grapes to us. Mobile's first recorded celebration was in 1704.
In both areas, celebrations took place to varying extents from the very beginning of settlement, picking up additional traditions as new waves of immigrants arrived. Partying in New Orleans, in fact, was at times out of control, which eventually brought crackdowns from the Spanish and new American governments, especially focusing on masking and bawdy street partying. This brought the public celebration of Mardi Gras in New Orleans to a sputter in the early 19th Century. Slowly the Creoles won back permission to expand Mardi Gras celebrations, until masking and street celebrations were again legalized. Mobile stepped into the picture in 1857, when members of the Cowbellian de Rakin Society helped blueblood New Orleans pals set up the Mystic Krewe of Comus, the pioneering parading krewe in the Crescent City. This launched an explosion of new Mardi Gras traditions. What Mobile can accurately claim is a nearly 300-year tradition of organized Mardi Gras celebrations, leadership in the creation of some modern Mardi Gras traditions, and exporting at least one of the most important traditions to New Orleans - the parading krewe.
By the way, you may be interested to know that Gulfport, Mississippi, also claims to have been the site of the first American Mardi Gras. If you take the famous Ship Island excursion ride, you'll find an article from a local newspaper on the wall that claims that Ship Island was the REAL Mardi Gras Island referred to by the explorer.
