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 Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras (French for "Fat Tuesday") is the day before Ash Wednesday, and is also called "Shrove Tuesday" or "Pancake Day". It is the final day of Carnival (English:IPA: [ka?(?)n?v?l] and Romance languages:IPA: [karnaval]). It is a celebration that is held just before the beginning of the Christian liturgical season of Lent. The feast should not be confused with the Swedish Fettisdagen (Fat Tuesday) or the Polish Tlusty Czwartek (which translates to Fat Thursday).
Perhaps the cities most famous for their Mardi Gras celebrations include New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro, Venice, Bahia, and Mazatlán. Many other places have important Mardi Gras celebrations as well. The carnival is an important celebration in most of Europe, and in many parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.New Orleans Mardi Gras is particularly well-known, often called "the greatest free show on earth". The celebrations draw many tourists to the city in addition to the celebrating locals for the parties and parades. Most tourists can be found within the French Quarter, especially Bourbon Street.
Mardi Gras came to New Orleans with the earliest French settlers. New Orleans developed new traditions, including Krewes such as the Krewe du Vieux, the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club, and the famous Rex parade, in addition to Mardi Gras Indians and king cake parties.
There are as many as 60 Krewes that have parades in the greater New Orleans area. Officially, the Mardi Gras season, more properly called Carnival, starts at the end of the twelfth day of Christmas. Most parades, balls and other festivities occur on weeknights and weekends in the 2-week period before Mardi Gras Day. Though each parade is unique, there are certain common ingredients: 1) either a King or Queen who reigns over the parade, picked from the Krewe membership; 2) gaily colored floats, ridden by Krewe members, who throw various items, including bead necklaces (beads), doubloons with the Krewe emblem and often, that year's parade's theme, and assorted other fun items; 3) marching bands, usually from high schools and universities, but often other invited guest bands.
Particularly since the inception of the larger parade organizations (sometimes called "super krewes") such as Bacchus and Endymion, it has become fashionable to invite Hollywood and other celebrities to act as Grand Marshals for parades.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardi_gras
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