Alabama’s Mardi Gras Celebration Ranked Higher Than NOLA??

When the new year hits, people all over have a few things on their minds.

New Year's Resolutions are definitely on the front of people's minds as also when to take down that Christmas tree.

If you're in the south or just know how to have a good time in general, you're probably thinking of how you're going to celebrate Mardi Gras.

People all around the nation head to New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras every year.

I even went one year with some college buddies and had the time of my life.

The drinks, the food, and the atmosphere were unforgettable. The parades were also amazing.

Sidenote, we may or may not have gotten paid to do an encore on the Mardi Gras karaoke stage.

Upon moving to Alabama, I was shocked to find out that Alabama had its own Mardi Gras celebration.

My initial thought was that Alabama was copying Louisiana, but it turns out, Alabama may be the originator.

According to History.com, Donnelly Lancaster Walton, archivist with the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library at the University of Alabama, says “Apparently, as early 1703, the French held a type of Mardi Gras celebration in Mobile.”

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I thought to myself, "New Orleans has been celebrating since before 1703?!"

Donnelly Lancaster Walton went on to say, “New Orleans wasn’t founded until 1718. Therefore, strictly speaking, Mobile had the earliest celebration of the two cities.”

There was a recent study done by Lawn Love to determine the best and worst cities for Mardi Gras celebrations. They compared the 200 biggest cities in the United States using the number of Mardi Gras events, cajun food vendors costume stores, and more to get their rankings.

It turns out, Alabama had three cities make the list with Mobile ranking the highest.

According to their results, Mobile ranked at number 32, Birmingham at 80, and Huntsville at 102.

Should Mobile's rank be higher considering they originated the celebrations?