More than 300 Years of Mardi Gras Revelry in Mobile
Mobile’s Mardi Gras Season is January 21st through February 21st
History of Mardi Gras in Mobile
As a major holiday in parts of Europe and South America, America’s Mardi Gras celebration dates back to 1703 when the tiny French colony of Mobile observed North America’s first Mardi Gras. The Cowbellion de Rakin society took loudly to the streets of Mobile in 1703 armed with rakes, hoes and cowbells plundered from a hardware store. Although they marched on New Year’s Eve and not Fat Tuesday, they were a mystic society and the true founders of Mardi Gras in Mobile. The stress of the Civil War brought an end to the annual festivities in Mobile and after the war and under union occupation, the city was disillusioned and discouraged. On the afternoon of Fat Tuesday in 1866, Joseph Stillwell Cain set out to raise the spirits of Mobile and donned Chickasaw Indian regalia, climbed aboard a decorated coal wagon pulled by a mule and held a one-float parade through the streets of Mobile. Mardi Gras with all its frivolity was reborn!
Joe Cain is credited with reviving Mardi Gras after the Civil War and is remembered each year on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday – this year, March 6th. The day is known as Joe Cain Day, “the people’s day”, when Mardi Gras revelers decorate anything they can push, pull, or drag for the Joe Cain Procession and parade through the streets of downtown. It’s as much fun to watch as it is to participate.
Mobile currently has more than 50 parading and non-parading organizations and an estimated one million people attend parades, parties and other organizations associated with the carnival festivities. So whether you are catching brightly colored beads, fluffy stuffed animals, or tasty MoonPies just be sure to come to Mobile Bay and catch Mardi Gras fever.
Why MoonPies?
The MoonPie is the favored “throw” of the hundreds of Mardi Gras maskers riding the floats during the extensive Mardi Gras parade season. MoonPies were first thrown from Mardi Gras floats in the 1970s. Today, Mobile consumes more than four million MoonPies annually, and has adopted the delicious treat as an informal emblem. Prior to the adoption of the MoonPie, Mardi Gras organizations would throw a variety of different sweet snack foods – most notably Cracker Jack. However, people kept getting beamed with the end of those rectangular boxes that the treats came in, and those box ends were hard and sharp. Sensing something needed to be done, Mobile city official banned the candied popcorn as a throw in the 1970s. In 1974, MoonPie madness was born with the “Maids of Mirth” threw the delicious treat out to the waiting crowds.
For more information on Mardi Gras and the upcoming schedule of parades and family fun, go to www.mobilebay.org for more details or 1-800-5-MOBILE.
