Mardi Gras is the annual Carnival celebration in Mobile, Alabama. It is the oldest official Carnival celebration in the United States, started by Frenchman Nicholas Langlois in 1703 when Mobile was the capital of Louisiana. Although today New Orleans and South Louisiana celebrations are much more widely known for all the current traditions such as masked balls, parades, floats and throws were first featured in Mobile., The History of Mardi Gras in Mobile Alabama, USA Today From Mobile being the first capital of French Louisiana (1702), the festival began as a French Catholic tradition. Mardi Gras has now evolved into a mainstream multi-week celebration across the spectrum of cultures, becoming school holidays for the final Monday and Tuesday (some include Wednesday), regardless of religious affiliation.McGill-Toolen Catholic High School Calendar for February 3, 2008], Archdiocese of Mobile, November 2007.Westlawn Elementary – All Events for February 2008, Westlawn Elementary, Mobile, Alabama, 2007
Although the area has traditions of exclusive societies, with formal masked balls and elegant costumes, the celebration has evolved over the past three centuries to become typified by public parades where members of societies, often masked, on floats or horseback, toss gifts (known as throws) to the general public. Throws include necklaces of plastic beads, doubloon coins, decorated plastic cups, candy, wrapped cakes known as Moonpies or snacks, stuffed animals, and small toys, footballs, frisbees, or whistles.Mobile Chamber of Commerce: Mobile Mardi Gras , Chamber of Commerce, 2007.Gulf Coast's oldest Mardi Gras,USA TODAY, January 26, 2004.
The masked balls or dances, where non-masked men wear white tie and tails (full dress or costume de rigueur) and the women wear full length evening gowns, are oriented to adults, with some mystic societies treating the balls as an extension of the debutante season of their exclusive social circles. Various nightclubs and local bars offer their own particular events.
Beyond the public parades, Mardi Gras involves many various mystic societies, some having begun in 1704, or ending with the Civil War, while new societies were formed every century. Some mystic societies are never seen in public parades, but rather hold invitation-only events for their secret members, with private balls beginning in November, each year.
Overview The Mobile Mardi Gras season starts in November, with exclusive parties held by some secret mystic societies, then New Year's Eve balls. It has become closely entwined with the social debutante season for certain families. Other mystic societies begin their events at Twelfth Night (January 6), with parades, balls (some of them masquerade balls), and king cake parties., Mardi Gras Digest, 2006.Mobile Bay Convention: Mardi Gras Terminology , Mobile Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau, 2007.
During the last two weeks before Mardi Gras, at least one major parade takes place each day in the city. The largest and most elaborate parades take place the last few days of the season. In the final week of Mardi Gras, many events large and small occur throughout Mobile and the surrounding communities.
The parades in Mobile are organized mainly by mystic societies or orders. Society float riders toss throws to the crowds. The most common throws are strings of colorful plastic beads, doubloons (aluminium or wooden dollar-sized coins usually impressed with a krewe logo), wrapped candy/snacks/MoonPies, decorated plastic throw cups, stuffed animals, and other small inexpensive toys. Major krewes follow the same parade schedule and route each year.
To Mobilians, Mardi Gras refers to the entire festival season, also known as Carnival. Local schools have multiple "Mardi Gras Holidays", which often include Ash Wednesday. Mobile's culture is diverse, and as a result the Mardi Gras season has been extended. The area's traditions draw from all of its history, including French, Spanish, British, African, Creole, American, and even Swedish influences. The 2008 documentary The Order of Myths details the origins of Mobile Mardi Gras and highlights the differences in the mystic societies due to race and history.
History
A type of Mardi Gras festival was brought to Mobile by the founding French Catholic settlers of French Louisiana, as the celebration of Mardi Gras was part of preparation for Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. The first record of the holiday being marked in America is on March 3, 1699, at a camp site along the Mississippi River delta, though no celebration was held.Louisiana Timeline: Year 1699 ,Encyclopedia of Louisiana, September 2000. Following the construction of Fort Louis de La Louisiane in 1702, the soldiers and settlers celebrated Mardi Gras beginning in 1703. Thus started an annual tradition, only occasionally canceled because of war., Mardi Gras Digest, 2005.
Mardi Gras has evolved over three centuries in the Mobile area, combining tradition and culture with new ideas. French Mardi Gras arrived in North America with the founding French settlers, the Le Moyne brothers, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville. In the late 17th century, King Louis XIV sent the pair to defend France's claim on the territory of La Louisiane, which included what are now the U.S. states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.www-NOLA-mardigras-history NOLA.com: Mardi Gras, About Carnival, New Orleans Net LLC, 2007.
The two explorers, arriving first at Dauphin Island in what is now Alabama, navigated the mouth of the Mississippi River (charted by Cavelier de La Salle, 1682), sailed upstream, and on March 3, 1699, celebrated, naming the spot Pointe du Mardi Gras 60 miles downriver from the wilderness that would become New Orleans. Meanwhile, in 1702, the 21-year-old Bienville founded the settlement of Mobile (Alabama), as the first capital of French Louisiana, and in 1703, the American Mardi Gras tradition began with French annual celebrations in Mobile.Timeline 18th Century: 1700–1724 , Timelines of History, 2007Library of Congress: Mardi Gras in Mobile, Jeff Sessions, U.S. Senator, Library of Congress, 2006.Mardi Gras History, Mobile Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau, 2007.
The feasting and revelry on Mardi Gras in Mobile was called Boeuf Gras (fatted ox). Masked balls, with the Masque de la Mobile, began in 1704. The first known parade was in 1711, when Mobile's Société du Bœuf Gras paraded on Mardi Gras, with 16 men pushing a cart carrying a large papier-mâché cow's head.
By 1720, Biloxi became the second capital of Louisiana, and also celebrated French customs. Due to fear of tides and hurricanes, in 1723, the capital was moved to New Orleans, founded in 1718. That city also later started a Mardi Gras celebration.
In 1763, Mobile came under British control. Its restrictions on free blacks and racial segregation caused many Creoles to leave Mobile and move west towards New Orleans. In 1780, Spain took control of the Mobile area in the aftermath of the American Revolution. The Carnival celebration incorporated the Spanish custom of torch-lit parades on Twelfth Night (January 6, also known as Epiphany.) In 1813, Mobile became a United States city, included in the Mississippi Territory. In 1817 it was part of the Alabama Territory. In the Anglican and Episcopal traditions, the day before Ash Wednesday was celebrated as Shrove Tuesday, marked by consumption of rich foods before the fasting practices of Lent.
In 1830, a group of revelers, led by Michael Krafft, who was likely influenced by his Pennsylvania Swedish traditions of celebrating the New Year, stayed awake all New Year's Eve, started a dawn parade on January 1, 1831, making noise with cowbells, hoes, and rakes.Carnival: Mobile Mardi Gras Timeline, Museum of Mobile, 2001. The group became the first parading mystic society, calling themselves the Cowbellion de Rakin Society, in a parody of French. They had annual parades each New Year's Eve. Nearly 125 years after Mobile's first parade of 1711, members of the Cowbellion de Rakin Society, took their parade tradition to New Orleans in 1835, eventually forming the Mistick Krewe of Comus.
In 1843, some men who had been refused membership by the Cowbellions, formed the Strikers Independent Society with their own New Year's parade. The Société du Bœuf Gras held their last procession for 161 years on Shrove Tuesday in 1861, before the start of the American Civil War, until the society and its procession was revived in 2022 .Toomey's: About Mardi Gras, Toomey's, The Original Mardi Gras Headquarters, 2006.
In 1867, following the end of the Civil War, Joe Cain revived the parade tradition in Mobile on Mardi Gras, riding in a decorated charcoal wagon, along with six fellow veterans. That event has celebrated annually with Joe Cain Day since 1966. The Joe Cain Day parade is held on the Sunday before Mardi Gras. The event's founder, artist and historian Julian Lee "Judy" Rayford, portrayed the "Chief" and in 1970 handed the features to the third "Old Slac", fireman J. B. "Red" Foster. Foster portrayed the "Chief" until passing the features in 1985 to historian, public relations professional and pastor, Bennett Wayne Dean Sr. Dean, as Old Slac IV, celebrated his 36th year under the feathers on Joe Cain Day in 2021.
War, economic, political, and weather conditions sometimes led to cancellation of some or all major parades, especially during the Civil War and World War II. The city has traditionally always observed some celebration of Mardi Gras.
Traditional colors Mardi Gras colors and meanings Justice (purple) Power (gold)
The traditional colors of Mardi Gras in Mobile are purple and gold. Purple has been related to royal monarchies in Europe, and is the liturgical color used during Lent in Christianity. Those who celebrate Mardi Gras elsewhere now incorporate a third color, green. This is perhaps an influence from New Orleans' traditional colors of purple, green, and gold, which came from the Russian House of Romanov in 1872. They were adopted there when Grand Duke Alexis Romanoff Alexandrovitch, brother of the heir apparent to the throne of Russia, accepted New Orleans's invitation to attend Mardi Gras, with festivities in his honor.
Mystic societies
The first mystic society began in Mobile in 1704, with the Societé de Saint Louise. It was founded by French soldiers at Fort Louis de La Louisiane. The annual Masque de la Mobile was started in the same year. In 1830, a group celebrating with an early morning parade, later known as the Cowbellion de Rakin Society held what became considered the first parade in Mobile society; in the early years for Christmas and New Year, unrelated to Mardi Gras.
Dozens of mystic societies have come and gone over the past three centuries in Mobile. Membership has been formed by affiliated groups such as co-workers, bachelors, women, blacks, black women, Jews, married women, married couples, or open membership, including visitors. There are currently more than 40 mystic societies in Mobile. Because many are run as secret societies, their impact on Mobile politics, business affairs, and Carnival activities is difficult to determine, but they have been another avenue of social and political influence.
Today, many mystic societies operate under a business structure; membership is basically open to anyone who pays dues to have a place on a parade float. In contrast, the traditional mystic societies were social clubs with secret membership lists. Divulging one's membership in a society can be grounds for dismissal. Some of the newer mystic societies actively recruit prospective members. Some of the older societies have restricted membership, with waiting lists numbering in the hundreds; others restrict members to alumni of particular schools, or other conventions.