OR YEARS, friendly debate has been waged between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama, regarding which city first observed Mardi Gras on the North American continent. Mobile—founded by French settlers in 1702—contends that they first observed the event. Louisianans attest that on Tuesday, March 3, 1699, Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville and his “krewe” religiously observed the first Mardi Gras in the New World, 12 leagues from the mouth of the Mississippi River. Iberville noted in his journal, “We have given the name Mardi Gras to this point.”
Mardi Gras Jubilee
Nov 30, 2021
3 minutes
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