When is Mardi Gras in New Orleans this year?

The first week of January in New Orleans starts the King Cake season. King Cakes first appeared after 1872, when the Rex Krewe selected the Mardi Gras colors (purple, green and gold). The traditional King Cake is a coffee cake, and is oblong and braided. It is iced with a simple icing and covered with purple, green and gold sugar. Each cake contains a hidden bean or baby doll, and custom tells that whoever finds it must either buy the next King Cake or throw the next King Cake Party. One Mardi Gras organization uses the King Cake tradition to choose the queen of its annual ball. Hundreds of King Cake parties are thrown every year and hundreds of thousands of cakes are made, bought and eaten every year.