Mardi Gras is known to many as a huge celebration down Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, but Mardi Gras is originally a festival to celebrate the forthcoming period of Lent. Mardi Gras is celebrated in a carnival like atmosphere and is also celebrated in Paris. Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday and is celebrated the day before the Lent Season begins. There are also other cities in which Mardi Gras is celebrated heavily in including Rio De Janeiro, Brazil; and Quebec City, Canada. The Mardi Gras celebrations and carnival season differs in different countries and can be celebrated for days at a time depending on a city’s own customs and traditions. In New Orleans the Mardi Gras celebrations are a nonstop party and usually include wild traditions such as women showing their breasts for some Mardi Gras beads in return.
