Best Gulf Coast Mardi Gras

Southwest Louisiana Mardi Gras

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:26:27 +0000

Southwest Louisiana Mardi Gras. As you would probably guess, almost everyone in Louisiana celebrates Mardi Gras. Lake Charles and Southwest Louisiana certainly do. Lake Charles is celebrating its 30th Annual Mardi Gras this year with parades, dances, trail rides, cook-offs and balls.

Orange Beach and Gulf Shores, Alabama Mardi Gras

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:20:39 +0000

Orange Beach and Gulf Shores, Alabama Mardi Gras. The towns of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores on the southeast coast of Alabama each have Mardi Gras parades and societies. Gulf Shores’ city parade will start at 10 a.m. on Fat Tuesday, Feb. 24, and Orange Beach will follow with a City parade at 1:30 p.m.

Kim Erwin, New Orleans Mardi Gras

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:18:03 +0000

Kim Erwin, New Orleans Mardi Gras. (Kim Erwin of Realty World) So how does a nice girl from small-town Nebraska end up prancing around on a float during a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans? I mean, New Orleans during Mardi Gras and Nebraska are about as completely opposite as two places can get, right?

“I had dreamed of riding on a Mardi Gras float since I was a little girl,” said Kim Erwin, real estate broker from Corpus Christi, Texas. “I went to Mardi Gras a few years ago and loved it and immediately decided to buy a condo just off Bourbon Street. While I was walking around in the French Quarter, I saw a necklace in a quaint little shop that had the word ‘Muses’ on it. I just loved it. I knew ‘Muses’ must be a Mardi Gras krewe, so I asked around until I found them.”

Bobbi Mannino, New Orleans Mardi Gras

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:15:14 +0000

New Orleans is the center of the Mardi Gras universe. Mardi Gras in the Crescent City is outrageous, outlandish, and outstanding. The society parties start on Twelfth Night, January 6, and continue through Fat Tuesday, which this year is February 24. Parades start on February 7, 2009. Millions of people from all over the world will descend on New Orleans to get their merriment on before Lent starts on Ash Wednesday.

Barry Kern, New Orleans Mardi Gras

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:11:42 +0000

New Orleans has more than 50 Mardi Gras parades. Each parade has numerous floats. This begs a serious question: Where do all those floats come from? Some people still make their own floats, but the vast majority are made by Kern Studios, the reigning King of Mardi Gras float makers.
The Kern family has been making floats since 1932, when Roy Kern got into the business. In 1947, Roy’s son Blaine founded Kern Artists. Blaine’s success in the business earned him the nickname “Mr. Mardi Gras” in New Orleans, and led him to open Mardi Gras World in the 1980’s.

Mr. George Moore, Mobile, Alabama Mardi Gras

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:08:34 +0000

Mardi Gras along the Gulf coast has changed in many ways over the last 300 years. Historians tell us that Mardi Gras celebrations were initially conducted on New Year’s Eve, rather than Fat Tuesday. Secret societies were created, parades were invented and the ever popular “throws” evolved. For a first hand, eyewitness account of the changes over the last few decades, Gulfscapes consulted the Official Historian of Mobile’s Battle House hotel, Mr. George Moore. The Battle House has been known as Mobile’s living room since it was first built in 1852. Over the years, it has been burned down, shut down and now renovated as part of the plan to revitalize Mobile’s downtown. Mr. Moore, known affectionately as “Mr. George”, worked at the Battle House in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and was one of the first new hires when the hotel re-opened in 2007. Mr. George, a life-long Mobile resident, proclaims he is “seventy five years young”, and has seen as many Mardi Gras as anyone.

Lillian Dean, Mobile Mardi Gras

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:05:04 +0000

No city has a richer Mardi Gras history than Mobile. The first American Mardi Gras celebration occurred here in 1703, and the first mystic society, the Cowbellion de Rakin society, was formed in 1830. How did anyone decide to start a secret society and why did it have such a funny name. As you would expect, there’s a story behind it. Here it is as told by Lillian Dean of Mobile, a former Queen of the Mystic Stripers society.

History of Mardi Gras

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:01:30 +0000

Who knew? Who knew that Mardi Gras, which most people know only as a one day parade on Fat Tuesday, actually is a centuries old tradition that is celebrated for weeks each year, not just one day? Who knew that some cities’ social calendars are shaped by Mardi Gras balls and dances? Who knew entire industries have been created by Mardi Gras? Who knew?

Mississippi Mardi Gras

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:01:30 +0000

Biloxi, Mississippi was the capital of French Louisiana from 1720 to 1723. The French brought their Mardi Gras traditions, but the first Mardi Gras parade in Biloxi didn’t occur until 1908, when John Carraway was selected as King and Miss Blanche Picard as Queen. Since then, celebrations have sprung up all along the Mississippi Gulf coast.

How to Talk Mardi Gras or The Language of Mardi Gras

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 02:59:05 +0000

There’s a whole host of new words to learn if you are new to Mardi Gras. The kind folks at the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau supplied us with the following Mardi Gras dictionary.

Galveston Texas Mardi Gras

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 02:56:00 +0000

Galveston’s 2009 Mardi Gras will be unlike any the city has seen in the last 100 years. You have to go back to 1900 to find the city is such dire straits due to a direct hit from a hurricane. But as a wise man once said, “You can’t let a little thing like that stop a damn party!”

Gulfscapes Magazine

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:07:26 +0000

Gulfscapes Magazine is a lifestyle magazine for those who live or vacation along the Gulf coast. The magazine emphasizes home design and travel. Articles offer information on home interiors and building materials; coastal recreation; food; travel destinations; style; and real estate concerns. www.gulfscapes.com

King Cake – A Primer (Includes Recipe for King Cake)

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:29:42 +0000

If you wait till Fat Tuesday to celebrate Mardi Gras, you’ll miss out on weeks worth of parties. Mardi Gras actually kicks off on Jan. 6, a day known as Twelfth Night, or King’s Day, in honor of the arrival of the biblical three kings to the Nativity manger, twelve days after Jesus’ birth. Twelfth Night has been celebrated for centuries and at some point, a cake was included as part of the tradition, and was referred to as King Cake, in honor of the three kings.