Abbreviation | KA |
---|---|
Named after | King Arthur |
Formation | 1977 |
Founder | Philip Fricano, Jr. |
Type | Coed Carnival Krewe |
Location |
|
Membership | 2,400 |
Website | kreweofkingarthur |
Krewe of King Arthur is a coed New Orleans Mardi Gras krewe.
The Krewe of King Arthur was formed in 1977 by the youngest Carnival captain in history, Philip Fricano, Jr. It was the first Westbank men's organization to parade at night in 1979.
In 2001, King Arthur moved its parade from the Westbank to the current Uptown New Orleans route.
In 2022, King Arthur made history with its largest membership ever, at over 2,400 riders. According to Mardi Gras Guide, it is the third largest krewe in New Orleans and the largest Krewe on the first weekend of Mardi Gras
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The Krewe of King Arthur presents a King Arthur and Queen Guinevere annually.It also includes Merlin the Magician, Morganna Ley Fay, Sir Lancelot, Sir Dagonet [2]
Trinkets, collectables, masks, and beads tossed by hand from riders of the floats are called throws. Throws from Krewe of King Arthur include wizard hats, puzzles, plush footballs, frisbees, headbands, stuffed animals, and selfie sticks. [3]
Krewe of King Arthur is known for its signature hand-decorated grails. It also gives away the Grail of Grails, a one-off, specially commissioned decorated chalice, described by The Advocate as "possibly the most collectable of all throws." [4]
A krewe is a social organization that puts on a parade or ball for the Carnival season. The term is best known for its association with Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, but is also used in other Carnival celebrations around the Gulf of Mexico, such as the Gasparilla Pirate Festival in Tampa, Florida, Springtime Tallahassee, and Krewe of Amalee in DeLand, Fl with the Mardi Gras on Mainstreet Parade as well as in La Crosse, Wisconsin and at the Saint Paul Winter Carnival.
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Mardi Gras throws are strings of beads, doubloons, cups, or other trinkets passed out or thrown from the floats in the New Orleans Mardi Gras, the Mobile Mardi Gras and parades all throughout the Gulf Coast of the United States, to spectators lining the streets. The "gaudy plastic jewelry, toys, and other mementos [are] tossed to the crowds from parading floats". The 'throws', consist of necklaces of plastic beads, coins called doubloons, which are stamped with krewes' logos, parade themes and the year, plus an array of plastic cups and toys such as Frisbees, figurines and LED trinkets. The plastic cups that are used as throws are sometimes referred to as New Orleans dinnerware.
Mardi Gras in the United States is not observed nationally across the country, largely due to the country's Protestant and Anglo-Saxon roots. Mardi Gras and Carnival are mostly Catholic holidays, while the United States has a Protestant-majority population. However, a number of cities and regions in the U.S. have notable Mardi Gras or Carnival celebrations. Most of these places trace their Mardi Gras celebrations to French, Spanish, and other Catholic colonial influences on the settlements over their history. The earliest Carnival celebration in North America occurred at a place on the west bank of the Mississippi River about 60 miles (97 km) downriver from where New Orleans is today; this Mardi Gras on March 3, 1699, and in honor of this holiday, Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, a 38-year-old French Canadian, named the spot Point du Mardi Gras near Fort Jackson. The earliest organized Carnival celebrations occurred in Mobile, then the capitol of French Louisiana known as Fort Louis de la Mobile, where in 1704 the first known Carnival secret society. In 1856, six Mobile natives established the first secret society, or krewe, in New Orleans, the Mistick Krewe of Comus. Former French and Spanish colonies such as Pensacola, Biloxi, and settlements along the Gulf Coast all followed suit in incorporating Carnival into their annual celebrations, which today have developed either separate traditions or variations of them from one another. In addition, modern activities generally vary from city to city across the U.S.
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