It is hard to estimate how many people will descend on New Orleans for Mardi Gras. There are festivals weeks prior to the actual Mardi Gras which will fall on Tuesday, February 28th in 2017. This special day comes 47 days before Easter and always falls on a Tuesday. The actual beginning of the carnival season starts on January 6 each year. The festivities last for more than a month with parades and parties and the it all speeds up on the Thursday before Mardi Gras.
Louisiana is the only state where Mardi Gras is a legal holiday. Others states, like Mississippi and Alabama, have their own traditions and events.
Mardi Gras actually dates back thousands of years.
Lupercalia, is a festival held in the middle of February as far back as the 1600’s, and was believed to bring health and fertility to the city and got rid of all evil spirits. It was thought to be a pagan affair by the Catholic church. The church had tried unsuccessfully to abolish the festival. They ended up making the festival a celebration of the coming of Lent.
Lent is 40 days in duration where meat is abstained from and only fish is eaten. Back then there was no refrigeration so meat needed to be eaten the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. It became a day of feasting. In French Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday.
A secret society called the Mistick Krewe of Comus, in 1857, organized a procession lit by torch light and had rolling floats and bands marching in the streets with costumes including masks, trinkets and beads which remain the festive scene. The eating of King cakes and decorating floats, the Krewes remain a fixture of the carnival festivities in Louisiana.
The actual carnival season in New Orleans begins after Twelfth Night or Epiphany on January 6. This is a time of plenty of parades, king cake parties and masked ball which are a traditional part of the winter social season.
Cameras and barriers are up this year for safety purposes. The mayor is thinking of having the bars in the city close their doors at 3a. but he may change this due to the feedback he is getting from bar owners.
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The good thing for this kind of festivity is to join together with the same goal for celebration.
At some point, it is also a win-win situation.
More tourist will come in the area and the local people will gain profit from them.
In addition, it will put the place into the limelight as a tourist trap.
With this kind of celebration, security is the primary concern.
The local officials need to plan ahead of time to secure the area.
I think this is a standard procedure for every places with certain festivities.
If I am touristy, then I need to search about the safety.
Yes, that is very true. It will be great for tourism. I think New Orleans is a tourist trap anyway. The mayor of that area is really trying to find some ways to make the city more safe. Hope they work.