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 March 2, 1699, French-Canadian explorer Jean Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville arrived at a plot of ground 60 miles directly south of New Orleans, and named it Pointe du Mardi Gras when his men realized it was the eve of the festive holiday.