Like so much of our culture, New Orleans’ famed Mardi Gras came from the Romans. Their Lupercalia festival of merriment became became “Fat Tuesday,” also known as Carnival, the last chance to indulge before the austerity of Lent. Mardi Gras came to New Orleans from France, but took on a local flavor soon after. Not that New Orelans held a monopoly over the festivities – some of the best-known Mardi Gras features actually came from a neighboring state.On this day, Feruary 24, in 1868, the Order of Myths, the oldest mystic society in Alabama, if not the entire U.S., walked in their first Mardi Gras parade. Notably, it was the first one that used actual floats in addition to people.

The following year, the Infant Mystics society would join their brethren in the the Order of Myths in the parade on Mardi Gras night. It would be the Infant Mystics who brought floats powered by electricity, rather than human and horse legs, to the celebrations of Mardi Gras.