Finding the roots of when Mardi Gras was first celebrated in America is as complicated as the act of celebrating it today is simple.
Some historians say it first appeared in Mobile, Alabama, pointing to notebooks left behind by Pierre Le Moyne D’Iberville, who chronicled his turn-of-the18th-century journey to locate the mouth of the Mississippi River and made note of a Mass performed on Mardi Gras Day on that voyage. Others, such as Mobile Carnival Museum curator Cart Blackwell, point to a moment decades later, conceding the lack of primary source documents that can confirm anything more.
“There are two ingredients people associate with Carnival: The extended season and parades,” Blackwell said, referencing the float-filled street parties during the span
