190 Fun Facts About Mardi Gras

Which Disney animated film builds to a showdown at a Mardi Gras parade?

The Princess and the Frog: Tiana has until midnight on Mardi Gras to break a frog spell, which sends her racing to the parade, in the film that brought Disney back to hand-drawn animation.

What are the three traditional colors of Mardi Gras?

Purple, green, and gold were proclaimed by Rex, the King of Carnival, who asked New Orleans to drape its balconies in them for his first parade in 1872 and never said why he chose them.

What Christian season does Mardi Gras immediately precede?

Lent. Households once had to use up the rich, fatty foods they would give up for the fast, so the day before it became a feast, the 'fat' in the holiday's French name.

What small plastic figurine is traditionally hidden inside a king cake?

A baby: whoever finds the tiny plastic figure in their slice must buy the next king cake or host the next party, which keeps the cakes coming all season.

Where in Canada is the winter Carnival hosted by a snowman mascot called Bonhomme?

Quebec City held winter carnivals on and off from 1894, then relaunched the event in 1955 to bring in tourists; Bonhomme, its snowman mascot, made his first appearance that year.

Which New Orleans street is most famous for its Mardi Gras revelry?

Bourbon Street is where many visitors spend Carnival, yet the big krewes do not roll down it: their floats follow routes through Uptown and Mid-City.

What snack cake is the signature parade throw of Mobile, Alabama's Mardi Gras?

MoonPies, the marshmallow sandwich cookies baked in Chattanooga, Tennessee, are Mobile's signature throw; the city even lowers a giant electric MoonPie at its New Year's Eve countdown.

In which month does Mardi Gras most often fall?

February is the usual month. Mardi Gras comes 47 days before Easter, so only a late Easter, on April 17 or after, pushes it into March.

Which Cajun French phrase is the unofficial motto of Mardi Gras?

Laissez les bons temps rouler is a word-for-word translation from English; Louisiana historians trace it to Louis Jordan's 1946 jump-blues record 'Let the Good Times Roll'.

Which French Riviera city hosts a Carnival known for its Flower Parades along the seafront?

Nice: the flower battle began in 1876 on the Promenade des Anglais as a simple exchange of bouquets; today costumed performers on flower-decked floats throw the blooms to the crowd.

Which scientist's theory did the Comus krewe mock in its 1873 parade?

Charles Darwin: Comus called the parade 'The Missing Links to Darwin's Origin of Species' and used its animal costumes to ridicule Louisiana's Reconstruction officials as well as evolution.

What deep-fried pastry covered in powdered sugar is a beloved New Orleans Mardi Gras treat?

Beignet: French colonists brought the fritter to New Orleans in the 18th century, and the city's version is a hole-less square of fried dough buried in powdered sugar.

French explorers named a campsite Pointe du Mardi Gras in 1699 near the mouth of which river?

The Mississippi: the Le Moyne brothers' expedition camped about 60 miles downriver from the future New Orleans as the holiday arrived in March 1699, and named the spot in its honour.

Which oak-lined New Orleans thoroughfare is the main route for most Uptown Mardi Gras parades?

St. Charles Avenue: its huge live oaks stretch over the route 'as if to catch beads', and strands snagged in the branches are a familiar sight after the floats have passed.

In Spain, Carnival traditionally ends with a mock funeral procession for which fish?

A sardine: the 'Burial of the Sardine' parodies a funeral procession and ends with an effigy of the fish going up in flames, a scene that Goya painted.

Which Polish filled doughnuts draw queues at Detroit-area bakeries every Fat Tuesday?

Pączki were a way to use up the lard, sugar, eggs and fruit forbidden during the coming fast; Poland eats them on Fat Thursday, but Polish America moved the feast to Tuesday and calls it Pączki Day.

Which South American city hosts the world's largest Carnival celebration?

Rio de Janeiro draws about two million people a day, and the Sambadrome contest is only the televised showpiece: most of the party is free, at hundreds of street bands and blocos across the city.

What musical genre, born in New Orleans, is closely associated with Mardi Gras celebrations?

Jazz: cornetist Buddy Bolden, who led a New Orleans band from 1895 to 1906 and has been called the music's father, is said to have recorded a cylinder, but no copy is known to survive.

What does gold stand for among Mardi Gras colours?

Power: the meanings arrived twenty years after the colours did, when Rex's 1892 parade, 'Symbolism of Colors', gave each of the three a virtue.

New Orleans's 'tit Rəx microkrewe answers the super krewes by building its floats out of what?

Shoeboxes: the founders took the shoebox floats that New Orleans children build as school projects and sent them down the street as a reply to super krewes forever setting records for size.

The Endymion parade ends its route by rolling into which New Orleans venue for its Extravaganza party?

The Superdome: Endymion's floats ride straight through the stadium at the end of the route, where tens of thousands of ticket-holders and top-name performers are waiting.

Which Southwest Louisiana genre blends Creole, Cajun, blues and R&B?

Zydeco gets its scraped rhythm from the frottoir, a wearable metal washboard that Clifton Chenier sketched in 1946 for a welder at the Texas oil refinery where he worked.

Which Italian city's Carnival is famous for its elaborate masks?

Venice has policed its maskers since the 13th century, when the Great Council made it a crime for them to throw scented eggs, perfume-filled shells that young men tossed at women they admired.

Mardi Gras Indians say their tradition honours Native Americans who did what for their ancestors?

Sheltered those escaping slavery: local tribes often took runaways into their own communities, and Black New Orleanians shut out of the krewes named their parading gangs in thanks.

Which 1969 road movie follows two bikers riding from Los Angeles to New Orleans for Mardi Gras?

Easy Rider: the New Orleans scenes were shot first, on grainy 16mm amid the real Mardi Gras of 1968, before the rest of the film's budget had been raised.

Which singer and actor co-founded the Krewe of Orpheus in 1993?

Harry Connick Jr. started Orpheus with his father, the city's former district attorney, and opened its floats to men and women alike at a time when the big parading krewes were single-sex.

What Louisiana stew, made with dark roux, okra and sausage or shellfish, is a classic Mardi Gras dish?

Gumbo is three kitchens in one pot: the roux is French, the okra came from West Africa, and cooks who skip okra thicken it with filé, the ground sassafras leaves the Choctaw used.

Which Caribbean nation's Carnival is built on steelpan, calypso and 'mas' costumes?

Trinidad and Tobago gave Carnival the steelpan: street percussion bands that once beat bamboo tubes switched in the 1930s to biscuit tins, dustbin lids and finally oil drums.

What do crowds traditionally shout at float riders in New Orleans, begging for beads and doubloons?

'Throw me something, mister!' is the plea; the custom it feeds began in the early 1870s, when a parader dressed as Santa Claus handed gifts to the crowd as he passed.

What does New Orleans's Royal Sonesta hotel smear on its balcony poles before Mardi Gras weekend to stop climbers?

Petroleum jelly: the hotel began greasing its poles to stop revellers shinning up to the balconies, and the chore grew into the Greasing of the Poles, a judged contest that opens Mardi Gras weekend in the French Quarter.

What is a traditional Mardi Gras king cake typically flavored with?

Cinnamon: the classic New Orleans king cake is a twisted ring of cinnamon-roll dough, far plainer than the modern versions stuffed with cream cheese, praline or fruit.

Which lawn ornament is the mascot of Baton Rouge's irreverent Spanish Town Mardi Gras parade?

A pink flamingo stands for the neighbourhood's motto, 'poor taste is better than no taste at all'; each year plywood flamingos are set out in a local lake to announce the parade's ball, and fans go in after them.

What kind of musical group leads a New Orleans second line parade?

Brass band: the club and its hired band form the 'main line', and the second line is anyone who falls in behind to dance along, parasols and handkerchiefs waving.

What Louisiana sandwich of fried seafood or roast beef on French bread is a Mardi Gras staple?

Po-boy: legend ties it to a 1929 streetcar strike, when the Martin brothers, former conductors turned restaurateurs, fed the strikers free sandwiches on loaves a local baker made for the job.

Carnival season in New Orleans officially opens on which Christian feast?

Epiphany, on January 6: New Orleans treats it as the first day of both Carnival and king cake season, so the party can last anywhere from four to nine weeks depending on when Mardi Gras falls.

The all-female Krewe of Muses is famous for handing out which hand-decorated item?

A high-heeled shoe: Muses riders decorate second-hand heels by hand, an idea inspired by Zulu's coconuts, and a caught shoe ranks among Carnival's most treasured throws.

What do spectators traditionally toss to the flambeaux carriers who light New Orleans night parades?

Coins: the torches were first carried by enslaved men and free men of colour, whose twirling and dancing turned a lighting job into a show that crowds tipped with quarters, and now dollar bills.

Blaine Kern's float-building warehouse in New Orleans, open to tourists, goes by what name?

Mardi Gras World takes visitors through the working warehouse of Kern Studios, a firm that traces its start to 1932, when Blaine's father Roy built a float on a mule-drawn garbage wagon.

What did an early-1990s New Orleans ordinance require of krewes that parade on public streets?

Certify they did not discriminate: the rule tied parade permits to that pledge, and three of the oldest krewes gave up their street parades rather than open their membership to scrutiny.

What ceremony closes Carnival when Rex and his queen visit the Comus ball?

The Meeting of the Courts joins the two krewes' balls on Mardi Gras night and has marked the end of the season for decades; once reserved for invited guests, it is now shown on local television.

Which one-pot Louisiana rice dish, a Mardi Gras staple, resembles Spanish paella?

Jambalaya is thought to have begun as Spanish settlers' attempt at paella with local ingredients; today sausage, poultry or seafood all go into the one pot with the rice.

What did Louisiana's 1980s 'Coconut Bill' decide about the Zulu krewe's coconuts?

Injuries they cause carry no liability unless the krewe is grossly negligent: lawsuits had cost Zulu its insurance and kept coconuts off its 1987 parade, so legislators stepped in, and state parade law still names coconuts.

What name do Carnival krewes give the staged, costumed scenes that open their formal balls?

Tableaux are staged pageants telling stories from history and myth; the last scene shows the throne, where the king, queen and court are presented before the dancing starts.

Which 2005 hurricane forced New Orleans to scale back its Mardi Gras the following year?

Katrina struck on August 29, 2005 and left the city government close to bankrupt. Krewes insisted on parading anyway, and the 2006 floats mercilessly mocked FEMA, its trailers and the failed levees.

Which Swiss city's carnival begins at 4 a.m. sharp with the lantern-lit Morgestraich procession?

Basel starts its Fasnacht on the Monday after Ash Wednesday, when most carnivals are already over; at 4 a.m. the fife-and-drum cliques set off by lantern light, and the party lasts exactly 72 hours.

What term do Mardi Gras Indians use for donning their suits and taking to the streets?

Masking: the tribes speak of 'masking Indian' when they dress; Mardi Gras was once a day for rival gangs to settle scores, and now they meet to compare each other's art and craftsmanship.

On Lundi Gras, the day before Mardi Gras, how does Rex traditionally arrive in New Orleans?

By boat: from 1874 Rex landed at the riverfront the day before his parade and rode in procession to City Hall; the custom lapsed after World War I and was revived in 1987.

Which all-female krewe hands out hand-decorated sunglasses as its signature throw?

Iris, organised in 1917, is the oldest women's krewe in New Orleans, yet for four decades its members held only balls: they did not roll through the streets until 1959.

Which singer-songwriter asked to be taken to the Mardi Gras in a 1973 single?

Paul Simon recorded 'Take Me to the Mardi Gras' not in Louisiana but at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, with the studio's own rhythm section; the Dixieland-flavoured single reached the top ten in Britain.

Dancers in devil masks perform the Diablada at the Carnival of Oruro in which country?

Bolivia: when Spanish rulers banned the Uru people's rituals at Oruro in the 1600s, the ceremonies carried on in Christian dress, with Andean gods hidden behind saints, and grew into the Carnival.

What 1979 event caused New Orleans to cancel its Mardi Gras parades?

A police strike: the union timed its walkout for Carnival to force the city's hand, but the mayor refused to give in and, with krewe leaders behind him, the parades were called off instead.

Which Colombian port city stages a UNESCO-listed Carnival in the four days before Ash Wednesday?

Barranquilla became one of Colombia's busiest trading ports, and its Carnival blends the dances and music of the European, African and Indigenous peoples who met there.

What was banned in New Orleans parades after two spectators died in 2020?

Tandem floats, several units towed by one tractor, were banned on the spot after two spectators were run over between the linked sections in the same week, one at the Nyx parade and one at Endymion.

With parades cancelled for Carnival 2021, what did New Orleans residents decorate instead?

Their houses as floats: the idea began as an offhand tweet by Megan Boudreaux on the day the parades were called off, and the Krewe of House Floats she founded was soon mapping thousands of homes.

Which group led its 2022 parade with plague-doctor marchers carrying brooms to 'sweep the plague away'?

The Krewe de Jeanne D'Arc is a medieval-themed walking parade held each year on Joan of Arc's birthday; its plague doctors wore crow-beaked masks and swept the way clear 'that merriment may ensue'.

In which country do busós in wooden masks and woolly cloaks parade through Mohács to mark winter's end?

Hungary: local legend says the townsfolk of Mohács first put on the carved masks and woolly cloaks to frighten off Ottoman troops, who took them for demons in the night and fled.

Which krewe, New Orleans's second-oldest, chooses its queen with a gold bean hidden in a slice of cake?

The Twelfth Night Revelers, formed in 1870, hand each debutante a boxed slice of cake at their ball: silver beans make maids of the court, and the single gold one makes the queen.

Which food is the centrepiece of Maslenitsa, Russia's 'butter week' carnival?

Blini were traditionally eaten twice a day during Maslenitsa, the week of feasting at winter's end, which closes with the burning of a Maslenitsa effigy.

What local name do New Orleanians give the grassy median running down their parade avenues?

The neutral ground: in the 1800s an empty strip, planned as a canal, separated newly arrived Americans upriver from the Creoles downriver, and the name spread from that strip to every median in the city.

What carries the families who ride in the Elks Orleans parade, which follows Rex on Mardi Gras Day?

Decorated trucks: where krewes keep their floats for members, the truck parades that follow Rex put whole families aboard horn-blowing truck floats; the Elks group, formed in 1935, is the oldest.

Which 2005 David Redmon documentary follows parade beads back to their source?

Mardi Gras: Made in China traces the beads from Carnival's streets to a factory in Fuzhou, where teenage workers live on the premises and string them for up to 20 hours a day.

Which frenetic dance and music style, performed to marching bands, drives the Carnival of Recife in Brazil?

Frevo sets marching-band music at breakneck speed, and its dance, the passo, grew from the leaps that capoeira fighters improvised in front of the bands.

What did the first King Zulu wear as a crown in 1909?

A lard can: in 1909 the first King Zulu, William Story, wore a lard-can crown and carried a banana stalk as a sceptre, mocking the pompous pageantry of high-society Carnival.

Which New Orleans-born entertainer reigned as King Zulu in 1949?

Louis Armstrong reigned as King Zulu in 1949, a homecoming that put him on the cover of Time magazine that year.

How does the Zulu krewe choose King Zulu each year?

By an election: Zulu's members vote for their king, while other krewes hold random drawings or simply invite a celebrity.

Zulu's painted coconuts were originally bought cheaply from where?

The French Market: early Zulu members, who could not afford glass beads, bought cheap coconuts from vendors at the French Market and handed them out unpainted.

Whose 1872 visit to New Orleans was the occasion for the first Rex parade?

Grand Duke Alexis of Russia arrived fresh from a bison hunt with Buffalo Bill Cody and George Custer; Rex sent him a written welcome and paraded for the first time the next day.

What is the official song of the Rex organisation?

If Ever I Cease to Love began as an 1871 English music-hall number by George Leybourne; a touring stage show, Bluebeard, brought it to New Orleans in time for Rex's first parade in 1872.

The word 'carnival' goes back to an Old Italian phrase about removing which food from the table?

Meat: dictionaries trace 'carnival' to Old Italian carnelevare, from carne, meat, and levare, to remove, a name for the last feast before the weeks when meat was off the menu.

What is the Rex motto?

Pro Bono Publico, Latin for 'for the public good', appears on every official Rex document; since 2006 the krewe's Pro Bono Publico Foundation has raised money for New Orleans public schools.

What does Rex traditionally do when his parade pauses at Gallier Hall?

Toast the mayor: Gallier Hall was City Hall for about a century, and the mayor still reviews parades from its stand, so Rex halts there to trade champagne toasts before rolling on.

On the eve of Mardi Gras, what is Rex handed before he proclaims Carnival?

The key to the city is handed over the evening before Mardi Gras, a custom dating to the 1870s; Rex then proclaims Carnival and symbolically rules New Orleans for a day.

What is the Rex organisation's official name?

The School of Design is the Rex Organization's official name, though it is rarely used; its founders wanted a grand daytime parade to replace disorderly street revels and lure visitors back after the Civil War.

Which Creole planter raised money for an official Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans in 1833?

Bernard de Marigny, whose plantation became the Faubourg Marigny, backed the 1833 festivities; he is also credited with bringing the dice game craps to America, and named one of his new streets after it.

The Mistick Krewe of Comus took its name from a masque by which poet?

John Milton's 1634 masque Comus, about the god of revelry, supplied the name; the krewe's first parade borrowed from Milton again, sending the demons of Paradise Lost through the streets.

What was the public face of the Mistick Krewe of Comus in its early years?

The Pickwick Club was formed within the krewe in 1857 to cover its mysteries: only the club was known to the public, while members' allegiance to the secret Mistick Krewe of Comus stayed hidden.

Which old-line krewe, founded in 1882, parades on the Monday evening before Mardi Gras?

Proteus, named for the shape-shifting sea god, still rolls on float chassis from the 1880s; its king rides in a giant seashell and his identity is never made public.

The Momus krewe was named for the Greek god of what?

Mockery: Momus was the Greek personification of satire and fault-finding, a fitting patron for the krewe whose 1877 parade 'Hades, a Dream of Momus' lampooned the Reconstruction government.

Which council member sponsored New Orleans's 1991 ordinance on parading krewes?

Dorothy Mae Taylor, a former state legislator, steered the 1991 measure through the council; three of the city's oldest parading krewes withdrew in response, and only one has returned to the streets.

Endymion is named after a figure from which mythology?

Greek: founder Ed Muniz found the ever-youthful Endymion in a library book of mythology, and the name appealed partly because he had once won a $2 bet on a racehorse called Endymion.

What is the Krewe of Endymion's motto?

'Throw Until It Hurts' is Endymion's motto, and its riders take it literally: the krewe reckons it tosses more than 15 million throws along its parade route.

Which NFL team owner was Endymion's grand marshal six days after his team won Super Bowl XLIV?

Tom Benson led the 2010 parade days after his New Orleans Saints beat the Colts for their first title; four seasons earlier the displaced team had played its home games in San Antonio and Baton Rouge.

What is Endymion's pre-parade block party called?

Samedi Gras, 'Fat Saturday', began when Endymion's captain booked local bands for a free show to draw a crowd to the start of the route; it now pulls in more than 30,000 people before the parade rolls.

Which restaurateur founded the Krewe of Bacchus?

Owen Brennan Jr., known as Pip, was the krewe's first captain; his father, founder of Brennan's restaurant, had launched a first Bacchus krewe, open to tourists, in 1949 but died before the idea took hold.

Which of these is a signature Bacchus float?

The Bacchasaurus, billed as the Gentle Dinosaur, joined the parade in the 1970s and set a punning pattern: the krewe later added the Bacchagator alligator and the Bacchawhoppa whale.

Which NBA legend reigned as Bacchus in 2025?

Shaquille O'Neal stands 7 ft 1 in, so the krewe rebuilt the throne on its king's float to fit him before he rode through New Orleans as Bacchus in 2025.

The Krewe of Muses is named for nine sisters of myth, by tradition the daughters of which god?

Zeus fathered them with Mnemosyne, the Titan of memory, lying with her for nine nights in the poet Hesiod's telling; New Orleanians know the nine sisters as street names.

How did Muses honour the previous year's hurricane victims in its 2006 parade?

With an empty float at the end: it trailed the 2006 parade the way a riderless horse follows the caisson in a funeral procession.

What is the name of the Muses' lead float carrying the captain and officers?

The Goddessey carries the captain and officers at the head of the parade; the last float shows the Sirens, who in myth lost a singing contest to the Muses and had their feathers plucked for crowns.

Orpheus's Leviathan was the first Carnival float to make extensive use of what?

Fiber optics light up the three-unit, 139-foot Leviathan; Orpheus had made a splash from the start, parading 700 strong in 1994 and ranking at once as a super krewe.

The Krewe of Orpheus is named for a mythical figure famed for what?

His music: in myth Orpheus's lyre charmed wild beasts and even the rulers of the underworld, and the musically themed krewe keeps the idea alive with its prized throw, a decorated tambourine.

What does the Orpheus signature float 'Smokey Mary' resemble?

A steam locomotive: Smokey Mary shares its name with the old Pontchartrain Railroad train, known locally as 'Smoky Mary', that carried New Orleanians to the lakefront into the 1930s; the float itself runs to eight units.

What is a king cake's hidden trinket traditionally called in French?

Fève, literally 'broad bean', is what the French call the charm in a galette des rois because the first tokens were real beans; porcelain figurines replaced them in the 19th century and are now collected.

The flaky French galette des rois is traditionally filled with what?

Frangipane, an almond cream, fills the puff-pastry galette des rois; when it is cut, the youngest child traditionally sits under the table and calls out who gets each slice, so no one can steer the hidden charm.

Whoever finds the figurine in Mexico's rosca de reyes must provide what on February 2?

Tamales: whoever finds the hidden figurine on January 6 must host a tamales meal on February 2, Candlemas; the dish is thought to echo the maize offerings of pre-Christian Mexico.

In Spain's roscón de reyes tradition, what must the person who finds the bean do?

Pay for the cake: a roscón de reyes hides both a small figurine, whose finder is crowned king for the day, and a dried bean, whose finder must pay for the cake.

Besides Mardi Gras Day, when do Mardi Gras Indian tribes traditionally parade?

St. Joseph's Day, March 19, and the nearest Sunday, known as Super Sunday, were traditionally the only other times the tribes appeared in full regalia, taking to the streets to meet other gangs.

Which tribe, formed by Becate Batiste in the 1880s, is considered the first Mardi Gras Indian gang?

Creole Wild West, formed in the Seventh Ward by Becate Batiste, is the first recorded Mardi Gras Indian gang; its name may have been an answer to Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, which had lately played New Orleans.

Which TV drama follows Albert Lambreaux, a Mardi Gras Indian chief determined to bring his tribe back onto the streets?

Treme: Clarke Peters plays Albert Lambreaux, who comes home to a wrecked house, moves into the bar where his tribe practises and sets about readying the Guardians of the Flame for the next Mardi Gras.

In a Mardi Gras Indian tribe, who walks furthest ahead on the street?

The Spy Boy walks far ahead of the tribe watching for rival gangs and signals back to the Flag Boy, who relays word to the Big Chief.

Which much-covered song tells of two Mardi Gras Indian tribes clashing on parade?

'Iko Iko' began as Sugar Boy Crawford's single 'Jock-A-Mo', pieced together from chants he had heard Mardi Gras Indians shout; the Dixie Cups turned it into an international hit in 1965.

The Cajun Courir de Mardi Gras descends from which medieval French custom?

Begging house to house: folklorists trace the run to the medieval fête de la quémande, when disguised peasants went from manor to manor at winter's end, performing in return for food, as Cajun riders still do.

Which documentary by Pat Mire explores the Cajun Courir de Mardi Gras?

Dance for a Chicken: The Cajun Mardi Gras, Pat Mire's 1993 film, follows masked riders who sing and dance at each farmhouse until the owner tosses a live chicken into the air for them to chase.

What do captains wield to keep order in some Cajun Mardi Gras runs?

Burlap whips: captains in runs such as Tee Mamou's wield thick braided ones, made to crack loudly rather than wound, and many riders count a few lashes as part of the fun.

Mobile's Mardi Gras began in 1703 at which French fort?

Fort Louis, founded in 1702 as the capital of French Louisiana, kept the feast a year later; New Orleans, the city now synonymous with Mardi Gras, was not founded until 1718.

Which Mobile parading group grew out of Michael Krafft's rowdy 1830 New Year's Eve revel?

The Cowbellion de Rakin Society took its mock-French name from the cowbells and rakes Krafft's friends banged through the streets at dawn; its members later carried the parading habit to New Orleans.

Joe Cain revived Mobile's Mardi Gras after the Civil War riding in what?

A decorated charcoal wagon: with Mobile still occupied by Union troops, Cain and six friends rode it through town in costume, declaring the city's suffering over and its parades back.

What fictional Chickasaw chief did Joe Cain dress as?

Slacabamorinico, 'Old Slac', was Cain's own invention; he is said to have chosen the Chickasaw because they had never been defeated in war, a jab at the Union troops then occupying Mobile.

Joe Cain was reburied in 1966 in which Mobile cemetery, the city's oldest surviving one?

Church Street Graveyard: writer Julian Rayford had Cain and his wife exhumed from Bayou La Batre and reburied there with parade-style pomp, and the crowd it drew inspired an annual Joe Cain Day.

On which day is Mobile's Joe Cain Day held?

The Sunday before Mardi Gras: Joe Cain Day's procession is the 'people's parade', open to anyone with no mystic-society membership needed, while black-veiled 'Merry Widows' wail at Cain's grave.

The Order of Myths emblem shows Folly chasing whom around a broken column?

Death: on the society's emblem float a jester-suited Folly chases a skeleton-suited Death around the column all through the parade, and at the end Death is defeated and Folly wins the day.

In the UK, what is Mardi Gras more usually called?

Pancake Day: Britons name Shrove Tuesday for the pancakes that used up eggs, milk and fat before the fast began; 'Shrove' is tied to 'shrive', to confess, as people did that day.

What are the costumed performers of Belgium's Carnival of Binche called?

The Gilles, hundreds of men in wax masks, wooden clogs and ostrich-feather hats, dance through Binche on Shrove Tuesday tossing oranges to the crowd; their suits carry Belgium's red, yellow and black.

Germany's carnival season traditionally begins at what exact moment?

11 November at 11:11 a.m.: the 'fifth season' is declared open on the eleventh of the eleventh, then falls quiet through Advent and Christmas before its street parades peak months later on Rose Monday.

What sweet bun is eaten in Sweden on Fettisdagen?

Semla: the cardamom bun filled with almond paste and whipped cream was once a treat for Shrove Tuesday alone; a popular but much-doubted story has King Adolf Frederick dying in 1771 after 14 helpings.

Which Italian town's Carnival climaxes in a Battle of the Oranges?

Ivrea, in Piedmont, stages the Battle of the Oranges: teams on foot pelt cart-borne 'guards' with fruit, recalling, legend says, a miller's daughter who beheaded the town's tyrant and set off a revolt.

Which Galveston Mardi Gras society formed in 1871 shares its name with a New Orleans krewe?

The Knights of Momus were founded in Galveston in 1871, a year before the New Orleans krewe of the same name; the Texas original folded around the Second World War, and a new group revived the name in the 1980s.

St. Louis's large Mardi Gras is held in which historic French neighbourhood?

Soulard, named for surveyor Antoine Soulard, builds up to its grand parade with weeks of events that include a Cajun cook-off, a costumed pet parade and a dachshund race called the Wiener Dog Derby.

What did an 1889 New Orleans newspaper deplore in nearly all female Mardi Gras masqueraders?

Immodesty: the Times-Democrat deplored 'the degree of immodesty exhibited by nearly all female masqueraders seen on the streets', a century before flashing from French Quarter balconies became a tourist ritual.

Sydney's first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, in 1978, took place in which month?

June: the march, on a winter night, was timed for the anniversary of New York's Stonewall riots; police arrested 53 people, and only later did the parade move to Sydney's late summer.

Which carnival cry do revellers shout in Cologne?

Alaaf! In full it is 'Kölle Alaaf', a phrase in the local Kölsch dialect; 'Helau!' is the cry of Düsseldorf and Mainz, so the shout a reveller picks shows which Rhineland city's carnival they belong to.

Cologne's carnival is led by a triumvirate of Prince, Peasant and whom?

Maiden: Cologne's Dreigestirn of Prince, Peasant and Maiden (Prinz, Bauer und Jungfrau) leads the season, and by tradition the Maiden is played by a man.

Which samba school won its record 22nd Rio Carnival championship in 2017?

Portela, the blue-and-white school from Madureira whose symbol is an eagle, won its 22nd title in 2017, the most of any Rio samba school; it was the school's first championship since 1984.

Which architect designed Rio's permanent Sambadrome, commissioned in 1983?

Oscar Niemeyer, the architect of Brasília, designed the Sambódromo for Governor Leonel Brizola in time for the 1984 Carnival; the plan tucked a primary school's classrooms beneath the stands.

At which pre-dawn Caribbean carnival ritual do revellers smear themselves with mud and paint?

J'ouvert opens Carnival in the dark before sunrise; the smearing is said to go back to rioters of the 1880s who covered themselves in oil or paint so they could not be recognised.

Which English town claims a Shrove Tuesday race dating from 1445, when a housewife ran to church holding her frying pan?

Olney, in Buckinghamshire: legend says the housewife heard the shriving bell while cooking and ran, pan in hand; the town now races Liberal, Kansas, each year for the faster time.

Which Cornish town plays 'Hurling the Silver Ball' on Shrove Tuesday?

St Columb Major: the Townsmen play the Countrymen through the streets for a ball of silver hammered over an applewood core, and the whole contest is fought again on the second Saturday after.

In legend, where did Venetians gather to dance after a 12th-century victory, giving rise to their Carnival?

St Mark's Square: legend dates the revels to Venice's defeat of Ulrich II, Patriarch of Aquileia; his ransom, a yearly tribute of a bull and twelve pigs, was slaughtered in public as part of the festivities for centuries.

Kern Studios began with a 1932 float by Roy Kern, who worked as what?

Sign painter Roy Kern lettered the bows of freighters and barges through the Depression, then built a mule-drawn float on a garbage wagon with his young son Blaine.

Which krewe's captain hired Blaine Kern after seeing a mural he painted in a hospital?

The Krewe of Alla's captain, a surgeon, spotted the mural Kern had painted to help cover his mother's medical bills; the krewe's name runs together Algiers and La., its West Bank home.

Which teenage vocalist sang lead on the Hawketts' 1954 'Mardi Gras Mambo'?

Art Neville, then 16, sang lead on the Hawketts' 'Mardi Gras Mambo', recorded in January 1954 for a local disc jockey; it became a Carnival standard, and he went on to found the Meters and the Neville Brothers.

What was Professor Longhair's real name?

Henry Roeland Byrd, born in Bogalusa, was given his stage name by a New Orleans club owner; in 1949 his band, the Shuffling Hungarians, cut the first version of his Carnival standard 'Mardi Gras in New Orleans'.

Which musician helped start the Half-Fast Walking Club, which parades on Mardi Gras morning?

Pete Fountain, the clarinettist, started the Half-Fast Walking Club with friends; by tradition it sets off from Commander's Palace at 7 a.m., pausing for plenty of 'refreshments' on its stroll to the French Quarter.

Which satirical walking parade began in the 1980s when the Krewe of Clones tried to turn respectable?

Krewe du Vieux grew out of sub-krewes of the defunct Krewe of Clones; it shuns tractor-pulled floats for small mule-drawn or hand-pulled ones, winding into the French Quarter with adults-only satire.

The Krewe of Tucks began in 1969 with students from which university?

Loyola: two students dreamed up the krewe at Friar Tuck's, an Uptown pub, after failing in a bid to become flambeaux carriers; the bar gave the krewe its name, and the first parades were pick-up trucks at night.

What is the King's throne float of the Krewe of Tucks?

A giant toilet: the Tucks king presides from an outsized commode, and the krewe keeps the joke going with its signature throw, a hand-decorated toilet brush.

Le Krewe d'Etat is led not by a king but by a secret figure with what title?

The Dictator, in keeping with the krewe's coup d'état pun: his identity is never revealed, the theme stays secret until parade day, and members dressed as skeletons hand out a satirical gazette.

Which krewe, founded in 1937, opens the Friday-night parades before Mardi Gras?

Hermes was founded in 1937 by businessmen who decided the Depression-hit city needed a party; its first parade, the next year, was the first to light its floats with neon.

How did artist H. Alvin Sharpe show Rex's captain in 1959 that his new metal throws were harmless?

Threw them at his face: by the krewe's own account, Sharpe walked into the captain's office with a handful of light aluminium discs and flung them at him; Rex tossed its first the following year.

The oldest known film of New Orleans's Mardi Gras, shot in 1898, resurfaced in 2022 in which country?

The Netherlands: Carnival historians had hunted the two-minute reel for decades before a film researcher, searching online, spotted it in the archive of Amsterdam's Eye Filmmuseum.

Which French Riviera city stages 'flower battles' on its Promenade des Anglais at carnival time?

Nice has held carnival since at least 1294, and in its flower battles models riding the floats hurl mimosa and other local blooms into the crowd.

At northern France's Dunkirk Carnival, what does the mayor throw to the crowd from the town hall?

Smoked herring, wrapped in plastic, rains down on thousands of costumed revellers, a custom begun after the Second World War to celebrate the rebuilt town hall.

Which French treat, made with eggs and butter, do families traditionally cook at home on Mardi Gras?

Crêpes use up the eggs and butter once banned during the fast, and French village children used to ask neighbours for eggs, sugar and flour to make them.

What fate awaits Vaval, Martinique's effigy of the carnival king, when Ash Wednesday comes?

It is burned, because Vaval stands for the misfortunes of the past year as well as for the king of carnival, and the flames carry both away.

Granville's carnival in Normandy grew up around crews leaving to catch which fish off Newfoundland?

Cod was the port's main trade and the fleets left around Mardi Gras each year; UNESCO added the carnival to its heritage list in 2016.

Which French city gives its name to the crunchy, knotted bugnes fried for Mardi Gras?

Lyon lends its name to bugnes lyonnaises, the thin and crunchy kind, which the city's charcuteries traditionally sold just before the fast because they were so rich in fat.

By which name do French speakers know Lent, the fast that begins on 'mercredi des Cendres'?

Carême is a worn-down form of the Latin quadragesima, meaning 'fortieth', the same root behind Spanish cuaresma and Italian quaresima.

Which Montreal-born explorer named a campsite on the Mississippi River 'Point du Mardi Gras' in 1699?

Iberville pitched camp on Mardi Gras itself and named a nearby stream Bayou Mardi Gras too; his brother Bienville went on to found Mobile.

Which southern French town claims the world's longest carnival, held every weekend for three months?

Limoux has celebrated carnival since 1604, and each weekend its bands circle the arcaded Place de la République, dancing from one café to the next.

In French Guiana's Carnival dance halls, which fully disguised figure invites the men to dance?

Touloulou, the queen of Guianan carnival, covers every inch of skin and even disguises her voice so that no partner can tell who she is.

Vernadean, the giant emblem float of Mobile's Mystics of Time, takes the form of which creature?

A dragon, Vernadean breathes both fire and smoke as it rolls, while Mobile's Mystic Stripers answer with a 40-foot tiger and zebra.

Which boxed caramel-popcorn snack was outlawed as a Mobile parade throw in 1972?

Cracker Jack went the way of confetti, another vanished Mobile throw, and softer wrapped snack cakes took over as the treat riders toss.

Which Mississippi coast town replaced Mobile as French colonial capital before New Orleans took over?

Biloxi became the capital around 1720 and kept up the French customs, but within a few years the government moved again, to the new river port of New Orleans.

Which name has every Mobile Carnival Association king borne since the first 'Emperor' was crowned?

Felix began with Emperor Felix I at the association's first royal court in the 1870s, and Mobile's Carnival king reigns as King Felix III.

Which black-clad group wails at Joe Cain's graveside before Mobile's Joe Cain Day procession?

The Merry Widows each claim Joe Cain as their 'departed husband', and they are shadowed by a rival group dressed in red, the Mistresses of Joe Cain.

At a Mobile mystic society's masquerade, what must unmasked men wear under 'costume de rigueur'?

White tie and tails is the rule for men, with full-length evening gowns for women, and some societies treat the night as part of the debutante season.

Besides Mobile, which Alabama county, home to Gulf Shores, keeps Mardi Gras as an official holiday?

Baldwin County, across the bay from Mobile, shares the official day off, while other Alabama counties may give staff a day of personal leave instead.

The emblem of Mobile's Knights of Revelry shows the jester Folly dancing on what?

A champagne glass of huge size carries Folly on its rim, and the same jester figure turns up again in the emblem of Mobile's Order of Myths.

In Poland itself, pączki are devoured not on Tuesday but on which 'fat' day of the week?

Thursday it is: Tłusty Czwartek falls on the last one before Ash Wednesday, and Chicago's big Polish community happily celebrates on both days.

Which of these comes closest to how English speakers usually say the doughnut name 'pączki'?

POONCH-kee, or sometimes PUNCH-kee, is how Americans tend to say it, close to the Polish original and nothing like the English spelling suggests.

Which Michigan city, an enclave of Detroit, is famous for the bakery queues of its Pączki Day?

Hamtramck filled with Polish immigrants who came to work at the Dodge Brothers car plant, and by 1970 nine in ten of its residents were of Polish descent.

Which flower provides the petals for the jam inside the most traditional Polish pączki?

Rose petal jam shares the honours with powidła, a thick stewed plum spread, though bakers also fill pączki with custard, strawberry and Bavarian cream.

Why is a splash of grain alcohol traditionally added to pączki dough before the doughnuts are fried?

It keeps out excess oil: as the rectified spirit evaporates in the fryer, it stops the fat from soaking deep into the dough.

Written without the hook under the 'a', the Polish word 'paczki' means what instead of doughnuts?

Parcels is the meaning of 'paczki' without the ogonek, the hook-shaped mark that English menus usually drop from the doughnut's name.

Which Hanukkah jelly doughnut descends from the pączki made by Polish Jews?

Sufganiyot got their Hebrew name in Israel, where immigrants from Poland brought the recipe; to keep kosher, they had long fried it in schmaltz or oil.

Which doughnut, often potato-based, do the Pennsylvania Dutch fry on the same Tuesday as Pączki Day?

Fasnacht dough was a way to empty the pantry of fat, sugar and butter before the fast, and in parts of Maryland the same treat is called a kinkling.

Under which 18th-century Polish king did French cooks make pączki dough lighter and spongier?

Augustus III was on the throne when, as the chronicler Jędrzej Kitowicz recorded, visiting French cooks transformed the dense old-style doughnut.

Which crisp ribbon pastries, called faworki in Polish, share the Carnival table with pączki?

Angel wings take their Polish name faworki from the ribbons that ladies once gave to medieval knights, a word borrowed from the French faveur.

The ashes for Ash Wednesday are traditionally made on Shrove Tuesday by burning what?

Last year's palms, blessed the Sunday before Easter, are collected in a basket at the church door during Shrovetide and turned to ash for the next day's services.

Lent's forty days echo the time the Gospels say Jesus spent fasting in which setting?

The desert is where Matthew, Mark and Luke place the fast and the temptation by Satan, just before Jesus began his public ministry.

Which joyful word of praise do Western churches stop singing in Lent and restore at Easter?

Alleluia disappears so completely from the Roman liturgy that churchgoers often refer to it coyly as the 'A-word' until the fast is over.

What name do most churches give to the final seven days of Lent, which include Good Friday?

Holy Week was once the strictest stretch of all: the early Canons of Hippolytus allowed only bread and salt to be eaten during it.

The English word 'Lent' comes from an Old English word, lencten, that named which season?

Spring is the root meaning, probably from the lengthening days, and Dutch 'lente' keeps that sense; only English turned the word into a church term.

The Hula Burger, Ray Kroc's Friday-fast rival to the Filet-O-Fish, replaced the beef with what?

Grilled pineapple with cheese on a cold bun lost a one-day sales contest to Lou Groen's fish sandwich, whose American sales climb sharply around Lent.

Which British mid-Lent celebration began as a day for visiting the church of one's baptism?

Mothering Sunday honoured the 'mother church', and its modern form as a day for mums owes much to Constance Adelaide Smith's revival from 1913.

Which bakery snack became a Lenten staple because a simple version needs only flour and water?

Pretzel dough needed none of the forbidden eggs or dairy, and one popular story has an Italian monk folding the strips to look like arms crossed in prayer.

Eastern Orthodox churches begin Great Lent not on a Wednesday but on which named day?

Clean Monday begins days of confession and thorough tidying at home, and since shellfish is allowed in the fast, the day's tables are laden with it.

The word 'carnival' goes back to old Italian phrases about removing which food ahead of Lent?

Meat is the food in question: Old Pisan 'carnelevare' meant to remove it, though a popular folk version reads the word as Latin for 'flesh, farewell'.

King cake takes its name from which biblical figures, whose visit is marked at Epiphany?

The Magi, also known as the Three Kings or Wise Men, give the cake its name, and in Spain the figurine hidden inside traditionally represents one of them.

What comes with a bakery-bought French galette des rois for whoever finds the hidden charm to wear?

A paper crown makes the finder king or queen for the day; the charm itself began as an edible bean, later swapped for porcelain to prevent cheating.

When a French family cuts the galette des rois, who hides under the table to assign each slice?

The youngest person names the recipient of each piece sight unseen, so nobody can steer the slice with the charm towards a favourite.

In England's old Epiphany cake a hidden bean chose the king; which hidden item chose the queen?

A pea baked into the other side of the cake picked the queen, a custom that faded in Victorian times as the Christmas cake took over.

A traditional king cake is made from which rich French bread dough, often braided into a ring?

Brioche, braided and left unfilled, is the old-fashioned version; bakeries have since competed to outdo one another with creative fillings.

The custom of hiding a token in a king cake was popularly traced to which Roman festival?

Saturnalia was the Romans' December feast of the god Saturn, when slaves were treated to a banquet like their masters', and the cake custom was long believed to descend from it.

Bolo-rei, a ring-shaped king cake topped with crystallised fruit, is a tradition of which country?

Portugal's bolo-rei follows a French recipe that Lisbon's Confeitaria Nacional began selling around 1870; when the monarchy fell in 1910, bakers renamed it to avoid the word king.

The Swiss and German Dreikönigskuchen hides which nut inside as the lucky token?

An almond stands in for the porcelain charm in these breads, which are baked as wreaths or rounds of sweet dough.

In Shakespeare's England, the finder of the cake's hidden bean ruled the revels under which title?

Lord of Misrule was the title, and when a New Orleans Carnival society introduced its king cake in 1870, the leader who cut it bore the very same name.

Which Paris address receives a giant yearly galette des rois that hides no charm, on republican principle?

The Élysée Palace has received the president's outsized galette every year since 1975, always without a charm, so that nobody is made king under the Republic's roof.

Which everyday object, carried in many colours, is the trademark accessory of Dunkirk's carnival-goers?

An umbrella in many colours, known locally as a berguenaere, has a central place in the Dunkirk festivities, whose street processions are called bandes.

By what nickname is Mobile's Joe Cain Procession known, since no single mystic society runs it?

The People's Parade grew so large that its organisers had to cap the number of participants, though joining needs no society membership.