Mardi Gras Past & Present | New Orleans (2024)

FAQs

What is the saying in New Orleans for Mardi Gras? ›

Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler

A Cajun-French saying meaning “let the good times roll” and frequently used throughout the year in NOLA.

Mardi Gras has been celebrated in New Orleans since the explorer Iberville first set foot here on Mardi Gras Day 1699. In French colonial days, wealthy members of Creole society threw lavish Mardi Gras balls from Twelfth Night (Jan. 6) to Fat Tuesday Eve.

Public urination during Mardi Gras breaks the law in New Orleans. You can face severe consequences for urinating in the trees along parade routes or any other public areas. You can find some public restrooms along the routes of day parades, especially near Lafayette Square.

A 2020 study estimated that Mardi Gras brings 1.4 million visitors to New Orleans. Wednesday night begins with Druids, and is followed by the Mystic Krewe of Nyx, the newest all-female Krewe. Nyx is famous for their highly decorated purses, and has reached Super Krewe status since their founding in 2011.

Mardi Gras Sayings

What happens on the float, stays on the float! Time for big fun in the Big Easy. Life of the Mardi! The only Tuesday that matters is Fat Tuesday.

Boo. A term of endearment a parent or grandparent would call a small child, presumably Cajun in origin. Sometimes refers to your sweetheart, too.

Mardi Gras celebrations are part of the basis of the slogan Laissez les bons temps rouler ("Let the good times roll"), as floats "roll."

A krewe is, simply, a club or organization that exists to celebrate Carnival. But while a krewe has royalty, the positions of king and queen are merely ceremonial. The identities of the queen and her maids are usually public, while the identities of kings are often secret—Rex being a notable exception.

Beads used on Mardi Gras (known as Shrove Tuesday in some regions) are purple, green, and gold, with these three colors containing the Christian symbolism of justice, faith, and power, respectively.

Please tell your friend that no one has to do anything they don't want to do, and those who flash in public can be arrested.

How do girls get beads at Mardi Gras? ›

But, as any New Orleanian knows, you don't have to do anything special to get beads during Carnival. Just stand in one place along the parade route during the two weeks before Fat Tuesday and you will likely get hit in the head with plastic beads, stuffed animals, or light-up necklaces.

Hence, Shrove Tuesday was also called Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras. French colonists introduced the term to the Americas in the 1600s, but the carnival tradition of merrymaking before Lent originated in Rome, probably as a compromise that the Christian Church made with the ancient annual pagan feast of Saturnalia.

That tradition started in Mobile, home of Mardi Gras, when it was decided that Cracker Jack boxes, the item that used to be thrown during parades, were just too darn hard. So, MoonPies, a value at just a nickel back then, became the thing to throw.

Mardi Gras was first celebrated in what is now the United States on March 2, 1699. The holiday was established by French-Canadian explorer Jean Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville when he departed France to plant a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi River.

While the spelling “Laissez les bons temps rouler” is most correct, you'll also see: Laissez le bon temps rouler. Laisser les bons temps rouler.

"Laissez les bons temps rouler" is the official greeting.

You'll hear laissez les bons temps rouler (pronounced lay-say le bon tom roo-lay) over and over again at Mardi Gras celebrations. It means "let the good times roll" in Cajun French. We can get behind that idea!

Laissez les bon temps roulez (pron. lay-say lay bohn-tohn roo-lay). French for “let the good times roll.” Never taken lightly in New Orleans.

“Other information of a nature calculated to increase overall enjoyment of the Mardi Gras season is also presented, but the primary objective is to improve the competitive position of the reader when that first float-rider co*cks his arm, and the chorus of, 'Throw me somethin', mister! ' begins.”