Celebrate Mardi Gras!

It’s a day of celebration—especially if you have a connection to New Orleans! Today is Mardi Gras (from the French for “Fat Tuesday”), which is held the day before Lent begins. It’s celebrated across the globe: In Belgium, it’s a three-day carnival, while in Germany, Karneval includes large banquets and much more.

Here in the Pioneer Library System, we have a number of Mardi-Gras-themed books that you might enjoy. Consider checking out one of them and celebrate Fat Tuesday with a good read!

Mardi Gras

The Celebrating Cultures series invites young readers to explore the special cultural celebrations that are held throughout the United States. Each colorful volume explores the richness of a culture through its history, traditions, symbols, and festivities. In a fun and exciting way, children can explore the cultural significance of a celebration and appreciate its uniqueness.

Mardi Gras Murder

It’s Mardi Gras season on the bayou, which means parades, pageantry, and gumbo galore. But when a flood upends life in the tiny town of Pelican, Louisiana—and deposits a body of a stranger behind the Crozat Plantation B&B—the celebration takes a decidedly dark turn. The citizens of Pelican are ready to Laissez les bon temps rouler—but there’s beaucoup bad blood on hand this Mardi Gras. 

New Orleans Carnival Krewes: The History, Spirit and Secrets of Mardi Gras

New Orleans is practically synonymous with Mardi Gras. Both evoke the parades, the beads, the costumes, the food—the pomp and circumstance. The carnival krewes are the backbone of this Big Easy tradition. Every year, different krewes put on extravagant parties and celebrations to commemorate the beginning of the Lenten season. Historic krewes like Comus, Rex, and Zulu that date back generations are intertwined with the greater history of New Orleans itself. Today, new krewes are inaugurated and widen a once exclusive part of New Orleans society. Through careful and detailed research of over three hundred sources, including fifty interviews with members of these organizations, author and New Orleans native Rosary O’Neill explores this storied institution, its antebellum roots and its effects in the twenty-first century.