Mardi Gras Beads: A Colorful History

Bright colorful glass beads have become a staple of Mardi Gras events in New Orleans, and the "tossing of the beads" has become a strong tradition over the years, and part of the Mardi Gras charm that attracts millions of revelers every year.  But how exactly did this tradition get started? And what is the significance of throwing colorful bead necklaces during Mardi Gras?  The answers to these questions may surprise you...

New Orleans historians trace the evolution of Mardi Gras beads as far back as the 1840s.  Legend has it that both colorful glass beads and almonds coated with sugar began being tossed into the crowds as a type of modern (for the time) version of a much older English Renaissance era custom. The original English custom was to hold a type of promenade, wherein the local aristocracy of a township would parade down the village high Street, throwing these candies and glass bead trinkets to the peasantry of the town.

The New Orleans version of bead throwing began as a type of perversion of this original English Renaissance custom.  Instead of aristocracy throwing beads and other trinkets or candies, regular citizens would dress up as aristocrats as a way of mocking the original English tradition.

But originally, the New Orleans tradition was not to throw beads, but only string necklaces at the parades.  But beginning sometime between 1870 and 1880, parade participants dressed as Santa Claus began appearing and throwing the now familiar type of Marty Gras beads.  It was about this time that New Orleans was becoming a popular tourist destination within the United States, and the Mardi Gras celebration as we know it today began to take form.

Today, the throwing of the beads is still a powerful Mardi Gras tradition, but it has evolved in some ways.  For example the modern custom of begging, or otherwise trying to entice parade participants to throw beads, only began in the 1970s.  This has of course devolved into the practice of young women bearing their breasts in exchange for being thrown bead necklaces, something that has turned into a tradition of it's own over the last 30 years.

But these days the Mardi Gras beads are not actual colored glass, but usually made of cheap plastic, and more often than not, imported from China.  But this hasn't diminished the symbolic meaning of the Mardi Gras bead necklaces one bit, and they are more popular today than ever.

Having said that, the Mardi Gras beads do have a lot of competition these days.  Many other parade handouts have been tried over the years, and in the last several decades, the most popular new items have been the coconuts that a group known as "Zulu" began handing out to parade watchers in the 1980s. 

For insurance reasons, the coconuts are not allowed to be tossed out into the crowd, but must be handed to individual revelers one at a time.  The coconuts have become so popular that in 1987, Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards drafted and signed into law the so-called "coconut bill," which stated that coconuts could legally be handed out along with Mardi Gras beads during the celebrations.

But today, despite the recent acceptance of other handouts, it is still the world famous Mardi Gras beads that continue to capture the imagination of revelers, just as they have for more than 150 years.