| Mardi Gras beads have a long and "colorful" | | | | and the Mardi Gras celebration as we know it |
| history, stretching back as far as the 1840s. | | | | today began to take form. |
| Despite the inclusion of other handouts to the | | | | Today, the throwing of the beads is still a |
| Mardi Gras parades over the years, the colorful | | | | powerful Mardi Gras tradition, but it has evolved in |
| little Mardi Gras beads are still the most popular | | | | some ways. For example the modern custom of |
| way to celebrate the occasion. | | | | begging, or otherwise trying to entice parade |
| Bright colorful glass beads have become a staple | | | | participants to throw beads, only began in the |
| of Mardi Gras events in New Orleans, and the | | | | 1970s. This has of course devolved into the |
| "tossing of the beads" has become a strong | | | | practice of young women bearing their breasts in |
| tradition over the years, and part of the Mardi | | | | exchange for being thrown bead necklaces, |
| Gras charm that attracts millions of revelers | | | | something that has turned into a tradition of it's |
| every year. But how exactly did this tradition get | | | | own over the last 30 years. |
| started? And what is the significance of throwing | | | | But these days the Mardi Gras beads are not |
| colorful bead necklaces during Mardi Gras? The | | | | actual colored glass, but usually made of cheap |
| answers to these questions may surprise you... | | | | plastic, and more often than not, imported from |
| New Orleans historians trace the evolution of | | | | China. But this hasn't diminished the symbolic |
| Mardi Gras beads as far back as the 1840s. | | | | meaning of the Mardi Gras bead necklaces one |
| Legend has it that both colorful glass beads and | | | | bit, and they are more popular today than ever. |
| almonds coated with sugar began being tossed | | | | Having said that, the Mardi Gras beads do have a |
| into the crowds as a type of modern (for the | | | | lot of competition these days. Many other parade |
| time) version of a much older English Renaissance | | | | handouts have been tried over the years, and in |
| era custom. The original English custom was to | | | | the last several decades, the most popular new |
| hold a type of promenade, wherein the local | | | | items have been the coconuts that a group |
| aristocracy of a township would parade down the | | | | known as "Zulu" began handing out to parade |
| village high Street, throwing these candies and | | | | watchers in the 1980s. |
| glass bead trinkets to the peasantry of the town. | | | | For insurance reasons, the coconuts are not |
| The New Orleans version of bead throwing began | | | | allowed to be tossed out into the crowd, but |
| as a type of perversion of this original English | | | | must be handed to individual revelers one at a |
| Renaissance custom. Instead of aristocracy | | | | time. The coconuts have become so popular that |
| throwing beads and other trinkets or candies, | | | | in 1987, Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards |
| regular citizens would dress up as aristocrats as a | | | | drafted and signed into law the so-called "coconut |
| way of mocking the original English tradition. | | | | bill," which stated that coconuts could legally be |
| But originally, the New Orleans tradition was not | | | | handed out along with Mardi Gras beads during the |
| to throw beads, but only string necklaces at the | | | | celebrations. |
| parades. But beginning sometime between 1870 | | | | But today, despite the recent acceptance of |
| and 1880, parade participants dressed as Santa | | | | other handouts, it is still the world famous Mardi |
| Claus began appearing and throwing the now | | | | Gras beads that continue to capture the |
| familiar type of Marty Gras beads. It was about | | | | imagination of revelers, just as they have for |
| this time that New Orleans was becoming a | | | | more than 150 years. |
| popular tourist destination within the United States, | | | | |