SHROVE TUESDAY, the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, so called as the day on which "shrift" or con fession was made in preparation for the great fast. Shrove Tuesday is called in French Mardi Bras, "Fat Tuesday," in allusion to the fat ox which is ceremoniously paraded through the streets. The Germans know it as Fastendienstag. It is cele brated in Catholic countries, as the last day of the carnival, with feasting and merrymaking, of which, in England, the eating of pan cakes alone survives as a social custom, the day having been called at one time "Pancake Tuesday." In the United States the festival season preceding Lent, particu larly associated with New Orleans, La., is known as the Mardi Gras. Properly speaking, the season begins with the New Year and terminates with parades, pageantry and a ball on Shrove Tuesday. This carnival season, of ancient and somewhat obscure origin, was introduced into America by the French colonists. Celebrations, accompanied by masking, are recorded as among the activities of the soldiers at Ft. Louis de la Louisiane (1702-1o), on the first site of Mobile, Ala. Similar festivities were observed by the resi
dents of New Orleans from its foundation, and were continued during the Sparish control of Louisiana. The custom was retained after the United States purchased that territory, but it was not until 1857 that a group of former residents of Mobile, Ala., where masked parades had long been a prominent feature of the celebra tion, organized "The Mystick Krewe of Comus," and produced the first spectacular parade with floats at New Orleans. Since that date "King Rex" has yearly ruled over the city on Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras, and appeared in the streets accompanied by his "Mystick Krewe of Comus." In the evening the frolic season terminates with brilliantly illuminated pageantry, depicting scenes from literature or history, followed by a ball.
See P. J. Hamilton, Colonial Mobile (Iwo) ; L. De V. Chaudron, Mobile Mystics and the Story of the Mardi Gras (Mobile, 191o) ; J. S. Kendall, History of New Orleans (1922).