More than 100,000 people will struggle to pay for a funeral this year, a report revealed this week. The average cost of a funeral for a loved one rose by 80 per cent between 2004 and 2013, and is expected to continue to rise.
In 1703 French settlers in Mobile established the first organized Mardi Gras celebration tradition in what was to become the United States. The first informal mystic society, or krewe, was formed in Mobile in 1711, the Boeuf Gras Society. By 1720, Biloxi had been made capital of Louisiana.
On Mardi Gras in 1827, a group of students sported some colorful costumes and danced through the streets of New Orleans, mimicking the revelry they had seen while visiting Paris. Fast forward a decade and the first recorded New Orleans Mardi Gras parade took place, a tradition that (obviously) continues to this day.