On this day in 1827, masked and costumed students danced through the streets of New Orleans, Louisiana, marking the beginning of the city’s famous Mardi Gras celebrations.

The celebration of Carnival, or the weeks between Twelfth Night on January 6 and Ash Wednesday, is the beginning of the Christian period of Lent. It was spread from Rome across Europe and later, to the Americas. Nowhere in the United States is Carnival celebrated as grandly as in New Orleans, famous for its over-the-top parades and parties for Mardi Gras, the last day of the Carnival season.

French settlers were the first to bring the tradition of Mardi Gras to Louisiana at the end of the 17th century, but Spanish governors of the province later banned the celebrations. After Louisiana became part of the United States in 1803, New Orleanians came together to convince the city council to lift the ban on wearing masks and partying in the streets. The city’s renewed Mardi Gras tradition began when a group of students, inspired by their experiences studying in Paris, donned masks and Joker costumes and staged their own festivities.

The parties grew more and more popular, and in 1833, a rich plantation owner named Bernard Xavier de Marigny de Mandeville raised money to fund the first official Mardi Gras celebration. After rowdy partiers began to get violent during the 1850s, a secret society called the Mistick Krewe of Comus staged the first large-scale, well-organized Mardi Gras parade in 1857.

Over time, hundreds of krewes, or people who organize a festival, formed, building huge colorful floats for parades held over the two weeks leading up to Fat Tuesday. Riders on the floats were usually local citizens, who tossed items at the dancers, including metal coins, stuffed toys, or the now-infamous strands of beads. Though many tourists mistakenly believe Bourbon Street and the historic French Quarter are the heart of Mardi Gras festivities, none of the major parades have been allowed to enter the areas since 1979 due to narrow streets.

In February 2006, New Orleans held its Mardi Gras celebrations, despite the fact that Hurricane Katrina had devastated much of the city with massive flooding the previous August. Attendance was only 60-70 percent of the 300,000-400,000 visitors who usually attended Mardi Gras, but the celebration marked an important step in the recovery of the city, which counts on hospitality and tourism as its single largest industry.