After years of stagnant wage growth, rising living costs people in England and Wales have an average of just Â£7,780 in savings, according to figures from Halifax. Rising costs: The average cost of a funeral as risen by 80 per cent since 2004.
The first Mardi Gras festivities in Louisiana were held on March 3, 1699. On that day, a group of French explorers set up camp on the west bank of the Mississippi River, about 60 miles downriver from what is now New Orleans.
The earliest reference to Mardi Gras Carnival appears in a 1781 report to the Spanish colonial governing body. That year, the Perseverance Benevolent & Mutual Aid Association was the first of hundreds of clubs and carnival organizations formed in New Orleans.