Mobile Local Guide

Festivals

Few festivals in the entire nation are said to be more beautiful than Mobile’s annual Festival of Flowers. Over one hundred square feet are set-aside in the city to showcase life-size diagrams and displays of exquisite gardens. The Festival of Flowers is a four-day festival that draws in thousands of visitors every year to take in the celebrated arrangements.

Much like New Orleans (on a lesser scale) Mobile hosts a large celebration for its own Mardi Gras. The holiday was brought to America from France when the French settlers colonized the southern part of the US in 1703. Mardi Gras is a way for Mobile residents to showcase their culture, food and dance to the thousands of tourists that attend every year from all parts of the country.

As one of the city’s oldest events, Mardi Gras has a rich and colorful history in Mobile. In 1711, the first parade associated with Mardi Gras was held in the downtown district of Mobile. The residents of Mobile danced in song down Dauphin St., bringing culture and cheer to the New World. In 1830, participants wore masks for the first in celebration of the election of Michael Kraft. This celebration was the first masked parade in The United States.

In the years between 1862 through 1865, the Mardi Gras festival was cancelled due to the unrest caused by the Civil War. In 1866, a resident of Mobile named Joe Cain dressed in as a Chickasaw Indian Chief and led his group called the “Lost Cause Minstrels” in a parade down the city streets of Mobile in direct defiance of the Union Troops’s orders. In 1867 the Order of the Myths was formed to assure the continued presence of the festival. Today, the Mobile Mardi Gras festival is the oldest parade in America.

Each year, the carnival gets a new king to act as leader and figurehead. Daniel E. Huger was the first King of the carnival. He was “ordained” in 1862 the same year that the first Carnival Association was formed. The first queen of the Mardi Gras was chosen in 1889. It wasn’t until 1898 that the Carnival Association was assigned with the task of entertaining the public by providing venues and events for people to participate in.

By 1902, the Mardi Gras had grown to be hugely popular to the point where it was not only enjoyed by residents of Mobile, but also by residents of other states. The trend was catching on! Masks, however, were prohibited to protect the patrons. Once again, with the onset of World War 1, the celebration was put on hiatus until happier times.

By 1924, Mardi Gras had grown so big, that it was necessary to pass an ordinance requiring vendors to obtain permits to participate in Mardi Gras. 1928 brought a new era to the parade, as the first floral float made its debut, followed by the first electric float a year later.

The one hundred year anniversary of the Carnival in 1935 was a huge celebration, with patrons dancing and singing for days on end. Yet, 1938 brought disdain to the celebration during the early Civil Rights movement when the first black Mardi Gras parade was held and a Black Man was hailed as the Mayor of the carnival. Again, for the last time, the Mardi Gras festival was cancelled temporarily during the years of World War II.