Editing Mardi Gras

'''Mardi Gras''' (French for "Fat Tuesday") is the last day of the '''Carnival''' festival season preceding [[Wikipedia:Lent|Lent]]. The annual Pensacola celebration, currently organized by [[Pensacola Mardi Gras, Inc.]], is one of the oldest in the United States, dating back to [[1874]]. Festivities typically take place on the eponymous Tuesday itself and the preceding week.

==History==
[[Image:ACBlountPriscus.jpg|thumb|right|[[A. C. Blount]] as King Priscus]]
The first organized celebration of Carnival in Pensacola was in [[1874]], when a group of men including [[B. F. Yniestra]], [[D. G. Brent|D. G.]] and [[F. C. Brent]], [[D. K. Huckley]] and Dr. [[J. C. Whiting]] established the [[Knights of Priscus Association]]. Priscus, named for [[Wikipedia:Lucius Tarquinius Priscus|Tarquinius Priscus]], the fifth king of Rome, who 
<blockquote>was the first Roman king to wear a purple robe, and golden crown on his head. He established the circus or place where games could be held, also increased the number of Roman knights, and built a stone wall around the city. His majesty of our carnival, like his prototype of old Rome, knows that "A little folly now and then / Is relished by the best of men."<ref name="1902carnival">[http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/dl/WF00000042.pdf Pensacola Carnival Association 1902 annual]</ref></blockquote>

The event became unorganized, having "fallen entirely into the hands of individual merry-makers and frolickers who disported themselves as their own wild merriment dictated,"<ref name="1902carnival"/> but was reorganized by the [[Clerks Union]] in [[1900]]. They formed the [[Pensacola Carnival Association]] with a 12-person committee led by chairman [[J. I. Johnson]]. Priscus remained the title of the festival's ceremonial king, and [[Alexander Clement Blount II]] was named the first King Priscus of the new group.

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==References==
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[[Category:Festivals]] [[Category:Mardi Gras|Mardi Gras]]