As Mardi Gras approaches you may ask yourself, what is Fat Tuesday and what does it have to do with Mardi Gras? Well, Fat Tuesday actually is Mardi Gras. Mardi is the French word for Tuesday while Gras is the French word for fat. Fat Tuesday is celebrated on the day before Lent and is always the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.

King Cakes are a big part of Mardi Gras tradition, with the origins dating back to the Feast of the Twelfth Night, which honors the three kings present at the Christ child's birth. In modern day Mardi Gras celebration tradition, the person who gets the “lucky” piece of cake with the baby doll inside, will throw the next party or simply buy or make the next King Cake. Hurricane Cocktails are a traditional drink in New Orleans in general, but particularly during Mardi Gras.

Mardi Gras has its roots in  medieval Europe. It originated in Italty: Rome and Venice in the 17th and 18th centuries and moved over time  to the French House of the Bourbons. From here, the traditional revelry of "Boeuf Gras," or fatted calf, followed To the French Colonies.

In 1703, the tiny settlement of Fort Louis de la Mobile celebrated America's very first Mardi Gras.

Beginning in  1730s, Mardi Gras was celebrated  in New Orleans.  Marquis de Vaudreuil, established elegant society balls, which became New Orleans Mardi Gras that we know today.

Carnival as we know it was first associated with Mardi Gras in 1781.

Street Processions of masked revelers began in the  late 1830s.   John Milton's hero Comus brought magic and mystery to New Orleans with dazzling floats  and masked balls.

In 1870, Mardi Gras' the Twelfth Night Revelers, was formed. The beginning of the throwing of beads.