Comparison With New Orleans
Due to the complex web of events in the 300-year history of Mardi Gras in Mobile, it is not easy to compare activities with New Orleans, which includes celebrations of the many communities within the Greater New Orleans area. Both regions schedule dozens of parades and have masked balls oriented towards adults, with alcoholic beverages. Both celebrations include family-oriented activities in addition to the more popularized images of alcohol consumption and rowdiness that have colored popular perception of the events.
The histories of Mobile and New Orleans are broadly interconnected, with both having been the capital of French Louisiana in the early 18th century, and later, both under control of Spain. Although Mobile's annual parades began with a Tuesday procession in 1711, the scheduled mystic society parades in Mobile were developed 120 years later and held for New Year's Eve, while New Orleans developed a traditional Tuesday public procession on Mardi Gras day. A cross-mix occurred when former Mobile Cowbellions instigated scheduled Tuesday parades in New Orleans, which led Joe Cain having parading in New Orleans in 1865, and then in Mobile in 1867. The influence of Joe Cain led to an annual Joe Cain Day in Mobile, celebrated with a parade, on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, but not in New Orleans, which has other traditions.
The mystic societies or orders/krewes differ between the cities. Mobile's final parade, on Tuesday night, is presented by the Order of Myths. In New Orleans, since 1857 the final parade had been presented by the Mistick Krewe of Comus, until they ceased parading in 1991. Now Mardi Gras ends with the parades of Zulu, Rex, Elks and Crescent City. The official end of Mardi Gras in New Orleans is the meeting of the courts of Rex and Comus at midnight. Both krewes have held their balls on Fat Tuesday night for over a century. Rex and his queen and court leave their ball and go to ball of the Mystic Krewe of Comus, as Rex is the younger organization.
Read more about this topic: Mardi Gras In Mobile
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