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50 free Hard Mardi Gras trivia questions with answers — pop culture quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
These hard Mardi Gras trivia questions are for people who know their krewes by founding year. They dig into the origins (the 1699 landing at Pointe du Mardi Gras, Mobile's Cowbellion de Rakin Society, Comus in 1856, Rex and the Grand Duke in 1872, Momus and Proteus), the traditions and what they mean (why the colors are purple, green and gold, the Rex anthem borrowed from a musical, the flambeaux, the doubloons and the Czech glass beads), the modern super krewes (Bacchus, Endymion, Orpheus, Muses) and Zulu's history from vaudeville skit to integrated parade. The 1979 police strike, the state holiday of 1875 and Joe Cain's charcoal wagon all make appearances. The second half travels the Carnival world: Venice's 1797 ban and 1979 revival, the Gilles of Binche and their oranges, Rio's samba schools, Cologne's Rose Monday, Maslenitsa, the Olney pancake race and Sydney's 1978 protest march that became a Mardi Gras. The easiest questions here would be the hardest on a general holiday quiz. For a gentler round, try our main Mardi Gras trivia (brainpickle.app/quiz/a/mardi-gras) or the kids version (brainpickle.app/quiz/a/mardi-gras-for-kids). Every answer has been checked against a reference encyclopaedia, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which two brothers led the explorers who held Louisiana's first recorded Mardi Gras on March 2, 1699?
Iberville and Bienville
They marked the day near the mouth of the Mississippi in what is now lower Plaquemines Parish, as an observance of Catholic practice.
Q 02Which Frenchman is credited with starting Mobile's Carnival celebration in 1703?
Nicholas Langlois
Mobile claims the oldest official Carnival celebration in the United States.
Q 03Which Mobile group, formed after a noisy 1831 New Year's parade, inspired the founding of Comus in New Orleans?
Cowbellion de Rakin
Michael Krafft's revellers marched with cowbells, hoes and rakes, and members took the tradition to New Orleans in 1835.
Q 04Joe Cain revived Mobile's parade tradition in 1867 riding in what?
A decorated charcoal wagon
He rode with six fellow Civil War veterans, and Joe Cain Day has been celebrated on the Sunday before Mardi Gras since 1966.
Q 05The Mistick Krewe of Comus took its name from a masque by which English poet?
John Milton
Comus was Milton's Lord of Misrule; the krewe even borrowed costumes and floats from Mobile's 1856 Cowbellion parade.
Q 06Comus paraded with few interruptions from 1856 until which year, when it stopped parading?
1991
It still holds a tableau ball each year and meets Rex's court at the end of Mardi Gras Day.
Q 07Rex was organized in 1872 partly to honour the visit of a Grand Duke from which country?
Russia
Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, remembered locally as 'Alexis', was touring America that Carnival season.
Q 08Rex's official anthem, 'If Ever I Cease to Love', came from which 1870s musical?
Bluebeard
The Grand Duke was fond of Lydia Thompson, the actress who sang it in the show playing in New Orleans at the time.
Q 09After an 1892 parade, Rex declared purple, green and gold stood for what, respectively?
Justice, power and faith
Some historians think the colors were first chosen in 1872 simply because they looked good together.
Q 10Which krewe, founded in 1872, was the third to hold a tableau ball after Comus and the Twelfth Night Revelers?
Knights of Momus
The Twelfth Night Revelers date from 1870.
Q 11Which krewe, founded in 1882, is the oldest continuously parading old-line krewe in New Orleans?
Proteus
Comus and Momus stopped parading in the early 1990s, leaving the sea god's krewe with the title.
Q 12Louisiana declared Mardi Gras a legal state holiday in which year?
1875
It followed the founding of Rex by three years, as the city's American elite took over Carnival from the Creoles.
Q 13A 1979 strike by which group forced official parades to cancel or move to Jefferson Parish?
The New Orleans police
National Guardsmen kept order but ignored morality laws, and some locals remember it as the best Mardi Gras ever.
Q 21Which two walking parades roll through the Marigny and French Quarter in the weekends before Mardi Gras Day?
Krewe du Vieux and 'tit Rex
Krewe du Vieux is known for its satirical adult humour and its full name is the Krewe du Vieux Carre.
Q 22Which Rex parade, themed 'Harvest Queens', was filmed by the American Mutoscope Company?
1898
It is among the earliest surviving footage of Carnival in New Orleans.
Q 23Besides Mardi Gras Day, Mardi Gras Indians parade on whose feast day and the Sunday nearest it, 'Super Sunday'?
Saint Joseph
Saint Joseph's Day is March 19, and the suits shown then can take a year to sew.
Q 14Zulu's origins trace to a 1909 vaudeville comedy skit that its founders saw performed by which troupe?
The Smart Set
The show was called 'There Never Was and Never Will Be a King Like Me', and the club was formally founded in 1916.
Q 15Zulu's president from 1973 to 1988 made it the first integrated parade. What was his nickname?
Glap
Roy 'Glap' Glapion Jr. actively recruited professionals, educators and businessmen of every race.
Q 16Which restaurateur founded the Krewe of Bacchus in 1968 as one of the first super krewes?
Owen Brennan Jr.
Bacchus was the first krewe to feature celebrities in its parade.
Q 17Endymion's first parade rolled on February 4, 1967 in which New Orleans neighborhood?
Gentilly
It moved to its Mid-City route in 1982 and now ends inside the Superdome.
Q 18Which attorney founded the all-female Krewe of Muses in 2000?
Staci Rosenberg
The krewe first paraded in 2001 and rides a giant fiber-optic red shoe.
Q 19Harry Connick Jr. marked the Krewe of Orpheus's 20th anniversary in 2013 with which album?
Smokey Mary
He founded the krewe in 1993 with his father, Harry Connick Sr., and Sonny Borey.
Q 20Until the 1960s, the most common Mardi Gras throw was strings of glass beads made in which country?
Czechoslovakia
Rex began throwing glass beads in the early 20th century; today most plastic beads come from China.
Q 24Who were the first flambeau carriers in New Orleans night parades?
Enslaved people
Before electric lighting the torchbearers were the only way to see the floats after dark.
Q 25A New Orleans king cake is a Creole variant of which French Epiphany pastry?
Galette des rois
A figurine or bean, the fève, is hidden inside and the finder is crowned with a paper crown.
Q 26Which Cajun tradition of masked riders begging for gumbo ingredients descends from the medieval 'fete de la quemande'?
The Courir
The chase for a live chicken may echo the contests and races of medieval French carnivals.
Q 27Which Late Latin expression is the most cited origin of the word 'carnival'?
Carne levare
It means 'remove meat'; 'carne vale' (farewell to meat) is a folk etymology, and some scholars point instead to the Navigium Isidis festival.
Q 28Which sixth-century bishop's sermons against pagan practices behind Carnival were later reused by the Synod of Leptines?
Caesarius of Arles
His statements around 500 CE became building blocks of the 'small index of superstitious and pagan practices' drafted in 742.
Q 29Legend dates the Carnival of Venice to a military victory in 1162 over the patriarch of which city?
Aquileia
It was outlawed under Emperor Francis II in 1797, masks and all, and revived only in 1979.
Q 30Under which emperor was the Carnival of Venice outlawed entirely in 1797?
Francis II
The modern festival was revived in 1979 and now draws about 3 million visitors a year.