It begins officially on Jan. 6, which is known as Twelfth Night or Kings' Day, so named because it falls 12 days after Christmas on the day the Wise Men are said to have reached Bethlehem. The private celebrations are balls, held by clubs called krewes. The first Carnival ball of the season is always the Twelfth Night Ball, held on Jan. 6. The parade season officially begins on the second Friday before Mardi Gras, although the parade calendar is expanding. At the beginning of the season, parades are held on weekends only, then become more frequent until the week prior to Mardi Gras, when there's at least a parade a day.
Every parade has a theme, usually borrowed from mythology, history or Hollywood.
The colors of Carnival are purple, green and gold, chosen in 1872 by the year's Rex. The one ubiquitous food of the Carnival season is the king cake. Sweet roll-like dough is shaped into a big circle, cooked and brushed with purple, green and gold sugar or icing. Then a plastic baby, representing the Christ child, is tucked inside. Whoever gets the piece of cake containing the baby must, by tradition, provide the next king cake.