mobile phone

Mobile's Mardi Gras celebration was the first in America and remains an important part of Alabama's Gulf Coast culture. Mardi Gras was first observed when Mobile was a French colony, a century before the founding of Alabama. Today, thousands of Alabamians and visitors come to Mobile annually to participate in the various parades, which are sponsored by local mystic societies comprised of secret members. Presiding over the revelry are an elected king and queen, who are chosen each year from among the various societies. At the parades, spectators catch candy and trinkets thrown from elaborately decorated themed floats sponsored by the various mystic societies and take part in one of the America's oldest cultural celebrations.

Mardi Gras is a Catholic festival that traditionally begins 40 days before Easter and precedes the Lenten period. The name is French for "Fat Tuesday," which is the last day of merriment and feasting and refers to the traditional practice of eating a fattened calf in preparation for the fasting and self-sacrifice of Lent. Mardi Gras celebrations first came to what is now Alabama with the early French explorers, who were led by Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville. He recorded the first observance of Mardi Gras in Mobile in his journal in 1699. Men in the camp marked the occasion with feasts, dancing, and a night of masked revelry. The annual celebrations of the festival continued as control of the city passed from the French to the British and the Spanish and finally to the United States in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.