Somehow or other, in spite of all the noisy frolic of such nights, the spectacle of a Mardi Gras Ball impresses one at moments as a ghastly and unreal scene. The apparitions of figures which belong to other ages; the Venetian mysteries of the domino; the witcheries of beauty half-veiled; the tantalizing salutes from enigmatic figures you cannot recognize; the pretty mockeries whispered into your ear by some ruddy lips whose syllabling seems so strangely familiar and yet defies recognition; the King himself seated above the shifting rout impenetrable as a Sphinx; and the kaleidoscopic changing and flashing of colors as the merry crowd whirls and sways under the musical breath of the orchestra ¡ª seem hardly real, hardly possible to belong in any manner to the prosaic life of the century.

2:You like your rice and politics dirty. (dirty rice has ground meat in it)

3:You offer somebody a coke and then ask them what kind: Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, 7Up?

4:Very little besides Mardi Gras could really hold a candle to us.

5:They say the toxic water and sludge smells so bad in New Orleans that they're thinking of renaming the city Newark,Mardi gras 2014 facebook covers photo
6:Voodoo did not exert a direct musical influence on the Mardi Gras Indians, but it was a cornerstone of the cultural tradition out of which they eventually developed ¡ª a living link to the African spirit cults of the Caribbean.

7:You pronounce the largest city in the state as Newawlins. (New Orleans)

8:It [Mardi Gras] is a thing that could hardly exist in the practical North....For the soul of it is the romantic, not the funny and the grotesque. Take away the romantic mysteries, the kings and knights and big-sounding titles, and Mardi Gras would die, down there in the South. - Life on the Mississippi (Harper & Brothers, 1896), by Mark Twain

9:Very little besides Mardi Gras could really hold a candle to us.

10:Being from Louisiana, we understand the beginning of the Mardi Gras season. It's a delightful party.

Mardi gras 2014 facebook covers photo