Mardi Gras Countdown
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Mardi Gras — French for 'Fat Tuesday' — is the final day of the Carnival season, falling exactly 47 days before Easter Sunday (the day before Ash Wednesday). Because Easter is a moveable feast, Mardi Gras can fall anywhere between February 3 and March 9. This countdown calculates the exact date automatically from the Easter algorithm each year. New Orleans is the epicentre of American Mardi Gras celebration, attracting over one million visitors for its parades, beads, and street parties.
Mardi Gras marks the last day of indulgence before the 40-day Lenten fasting period. The timing shifts by up to five weeks between years, making it one of the most frequently searched moveable dates on the calendar. Travel to New Orleans for Mardi Gras requires planning months in advance — hotels book out a year ahead for the peak weekend.
The date moves with Easter
Mardi Gras is Shrove Tuesday — the day before Ash Wednesday, which is 46 days before Easter Sunday. Because Easter moves across five weeks, Mardi Gras moves with it, falling anywhere from early February to early March.
That is why it cannot be stored as a date. It is one of the cluster of observances pegged to Easter, along with Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday and Pentecost.
Carnival season is longer than the day
In New Orleans the season begins on Twelfth Night, 6 January, and runs until Mardi Gras itself. The parades build across weeks, and the largest ones fall in the final days rather than on the Tuesday.
A countdown to the Tuesday is therefore a countdown to the end of a season rather than to its start. Anyone travelling for it wants the parade schedule rather than the date.
Book far earlier than feels necessary
Accommodation in New Orleans for the final weekend goes months ahead and prices rise steeply. Six to twelve months is normal for anyone wanting to be central, and the last fortnight is not a planning window.
The same applies at a smaller scale to Carnival celebrations elsewhere. If the countdown is the reason you are thinking about it, you are probably already looking at the following year.
All offsets are from Easter Sunday, which itself moves across five weeks.
| Day | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Twelfth Night | 6 January | Season begins |
| Mardi Gras | Easter -47 days | Shrove Tuesday |
| Ash Wednesday | Easter -46 days | Lent begins |
| Date range | 3 Feb - 9 March | Follows Easter |
| Largest parades | Final weekend | Not the Tuesday |
| Accommodation | 6-12 months ahead | Central New Orleans |
- Mardi Gras is the day before Ash Wednesday, so it moves with Easter across a five-week range.
- The countdown ends a season rather than starting one — the biggest parades are in the days before.
Sources
- Date derivation follows the Easter computus; parade schedules and lead times are practical observation , TheTimerLab — accessed 2026-07-29