A Brief History of Mardi Gras

Let's Mask
With it's mixture of Caribbean, Spanish, and French influences, New Orleans' Mardi Gras adopted the latter nation's affinity for masked balls and celebrations. In a little more than 150 years, Mardi Gras has only been canceled about a dozen times, typically for disease (yellow fever in the late 1870s) or conflict (the Civil War and both World Wars).

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