Question of the Day - 04 January 2023

"Mardi Gras" in French means Fat Tuesday.

Mardi Gras includes the practice of eating big rich fatty meals during Carnival, which extends from Three Kings Day (this year on January 6) all the way to Shrove Tuesday (February 21), the day before Ash Wednesday when the 40-day period of abstinence and fasting, known as Lent, begins.

Three Kings Day, Shrove Tuesday, and Lent are observed by many Christians, including Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, and Roman Catholics, but the Mardi Gras Carnival varies from region to region and city to city. In the U.S., the most famous of the Mardi Gras festivals, of course, takes place in New Orleans. But you might be surprised that the second best Carnival happens in Soulard, Missouri, a neighborhood in St. Louis whose French name translates as “Drunkard.” St. Louis's Mardi Gras attracts 750,000 people from all over the country, as compared to New Orleans, which hosts a million-plus. 

LawnLove.com, a popular landscaping website that conducts numerous analyses, determined the best cities in which to celebrate Mardi Gras, besides New Orleans. As expected, St Louis ranked second, followed by Baton Rouge and Metairie, both in Louisiana, then New York, San Francisco, Miami, Mobile (AL), Dallas, and yes, Las Vegas at number nine.

Las Vegas being in the top 10 took us a little by surprise, since there really isn't any public celebration here like in the Big Easy. Of course, in Sin City, any old excuse for drinking and partying will do, which is why Las Vegas placed first for "community interest" out of the 200 cities LawnLove surveyed. Likewise, it took top honors for "highest average search volume for Mardi Gras-related terms over the past 12 months." 

In Las Vegas, however, Mardi Gras is decentralized, with parties in varying degrees at venues all over town. Every bar worth its salt offers drink specials; the casinos put on various promotions, such as point multipliers and deals on Cajun-Creole food.  

Though Caesars Entertainment and the new owners of the Rio, it seems to us, tend to forget it, Rio di Janeiro is home to the greatest Mardi Gras celebration in the world, with two million celebrants partying over five days. The Rio used to have the Masquerade Show in the Sky, an overhead cavalcade of Mardi Gras-like floats, characters, and costumes, which ran on the hour, complete with beads and dancers, but that shut down in 2013 and is just a memory now. We might be wrong and if we are, please let us know, but the only vestige of Mardi Gras at the Rio that we can see is the 1,600-square-foot Fat Tuesday suite. 

Mardi Gras central is, probably, at none other than the Orleans, which typically holds a parade featuring a Dixieland band, followed by "Mardi Gras girls" handing out T-shirts and beads to the crowd.

Of course, the Fremont Street Experience and LINQ Promenade adopt Mardi Gras customs and colors on Fat Tuesday. 

And you can experience Fat Tuesday year-round at the daiquiri franchise of the same name, which got its start in New Orleans in 1983. Eight cup sizes, from 22 to 100 ounces, come with alcohol versions of slushies. At last count, there were 15 Fat Tuesday concessions on the Strip and one downtown. 

Anyone who knows of good Mardi Gras parties and events in Las Vegas that we haven't covered, please share them with us all in the comment boxes.