Today is Mardi Gras, also called Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday, a French Catholic tradition that celebrates debauchery before Lent begins with Ash Wednesday for Christians.
The festival date varies from city to city, but most Americans base their celebration of Mardi Gras off of the famous celebration in New Orleans, which this year lands on February 28.
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The tradition of bead throwing starts with their original colors. The color of the beads was determined by the king of the first daytime Carnival in 1872. He wanted the colors to be royal colors – purple for justice, gold for power and green for faith. The idea was to toss the color to the person who exhibited the color’s meaning.!
Oh, what fun it would be to actually be on Bourbon Street today!!
