What do party beads mean?

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Party beads typically decorate the necks of young and old during celebration. They have come to symbolize the fun and festivities seen in New Orleans once a year during Mardi Gras.

Features

Mardi Gras Day, also called Fat Tuesday, marks the final day of the Mardi Gras season and falls on a different day each year. It is 46 days before Easter, according to mardigrasday.com.

Significance

According to mardigrasdigest.com, masked characters on floats will throw party beads along with stuffed toys and gold doubloons from parade floats during Mardi Gras. The celebration's official colors of purple, green and gold symbolize justice, faith and power, respectively.

History

The Rex Organization began the tradition of tossing out "inexpensive necklaces of glass beads." According to rexorganization.com, this pro bono organization formed in 1872 to entertain the Grand Duke of Russia who was slated to witness Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Fun Fact

Some Mardi Gras participants will go to extreme lengths to acquire party beads. According to Arthur Hardy, publisher of Arthur Hardy's Mardi Gras Guide, the bartering of beads began in the late 1970s when drunken Mardi Gras participants exchanged these trinkets for glimpses of women's breasts.

Considerations

Party beads are manufactured today in China whereas Mardi Gras celebrations of earlier years showed beads imported from Japan and Czechoslovakia. Mardi Gras krewes must get orders and design requests submitted by September.

Source:

Mardigrasdigest.com: Mardi Gras Questions

News.nationalgeographic.com: The Rich History of Mardi Gras's Cheap Trinkets

Rexorganization.com: Rex History

More Information:

Mardigrasday.com: Mardi Gras

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What do party beads mean?

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