Mardi Gras (-3)- The Colors

Did you know that New Orleans is NOT the original home of Mardi Gras in the United States? Mobile, Alabama, was the capital of French Louisiana before New Orleans was less than a tiny village. Mardi Gras in Alabama is a BIG thing. It started in Mobile in 1703, 15 years before New Orleans was founded. Tuesday is even a school holiday!

I have gathered some facts and trivia about Mardi Gras along with some of my pictures to take us through these next few days until Mardi Gras ends on Tuesday and Lent begins with Ash Wednesday. (Wikipedia Article: Mardi Gras in Mobile.)

Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, is the end of the Epiphany season in the church year. From January 6 until then developed as a season of joyful celebration- sometimes known as "Carnival." Over the years New Orleans has been the paradigm for Mardi Gras, the end of the celebration, but Mobile hasn't been exactly slacking. Parades started weeks ago around the Mobile area- on both sides of Mobile Bay. Mystic Societies, Masked Balls, parades and floats are happening everywhere.

  On the Wikipedia page linked above they tell us that the three colors for Mardi Gras mean:

	Justice (purple)
	Faith (green)
	Power (gold)

The traditional colors of Mardi Gras in Mobile have been purple and gold. Purple has been related to royal monarchies in Europe, and is the liturgical color used during Lent in Christianity. Many in Mobile now incorporate a third color, green. This is perhaps an influence from New Orleans' traditional colors of purple, green, and gold, which came from the Russian House of Romanov in 1872. They were adopted there when Grand Duke Alexis Romanoff Alexandrovitch, brother of the heir apparent to the throne of Russia, accepted New Orleans's invitation to attend Mardi Gras, with festivities in his honor.

More will be posted over the next few days.
I sure need Mardi Gras this year!