Mardi Gras, also known as Fat Tuesday, is a day of excessive celebrations that marks the culmination of the Carnival season, with festivities including parades, live music, festivals, and balls.
The words “Mardi Gras” are synonymous with extravagance and indulgence: big parties, large crowds, boisterous parades, colorful masks and…did we say big parties?
Although Mardi Gras itself is a single Tuesday, it’s part of Carnival, a larger, weeks-long celebration of never-ending carousing before the more solemn religious season of Lent and the preparation for Easter begins in the Christian faith.
Mardi Gras (and Carnival) is celebrated in cities around the world, but the most popular hotspots for the festivities are the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. If you can’t make it to either of those locations for Fat Tuesday 2026, you can still celebrate Mardi Gras with a delicious king cake shared amongst your friends!
Here is everything you need to know about the season of Mardi Gras, including why it’s celebrated, when Mardi Gras 2026 is, how long it lasts and what Fat Tuesday means.