Mardi Gras Corner

What is Mardi Gras? Mardi Gras, which is French for Fat Tuesday, is the final day of the Carnival holiday season, and marks the end of the period before the traditional Catholic fasting of Lent begins. Mardi Gras is a time of raucous celebration and partying, including masked balls, feasting, and parades. The feasting has its origin in the need to use up all remaining meat, eggs and butter before the Lent fasting season.

When is Mardi Gras? Carnival season officially begins on Twelfth Night (January 6), and culminates the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras day lands on a different day each year (anywhere from February 3 to March 9), as it is dependent upon whichever day that Easter falls on. In 2008, Mardi Gras day will be February 5th.

Where is Mardi Gras celebrated? Though tied to a Christian holiday, Carnival has its roots in pagan times as a spring festival. Like many other pagan traditions, it was eventually transformed into a Christian tradition, and is currently celebrated around the world, especially in areas with a large Catholic population. In the United States, New Orleans has the largest and most well-known Mardi Gras parades. Rio de Janero in Brazil is regarded as having the wildest Carnival celebrations in the world, and Venice's Mardi Gras celebrations trace themselves back to pagan times.

Mardi Gras Corner aims to help you celebrate Mardi Gras in your own way. Whether you will be traveling to one of the Carnival celebrations or simply displaying a festive Mardi Gras desktop wallpaper on your computer, we hope to make your Carnival celebration a fun and joyous one.

With everything from Mardi Gras desktop wallpaper, to Mardi Gras history, King Cake recipes, parade schedules, and Mardi Gras lingo, you can find what you need at Mardi Gras corner to party the Carnival season away!