After years of stagnant wage growth, rising living costs people in England and Wales have an average of just Â£7,780 in savings, according to figures from Halifax. Rising costs: The average cost of a funeral as risen by 80 per cent since 2004.
The first Mardi Gras festivities in Louisiana were held on March 3, 1699. On that day, a group of French explorers set up camp on the west bank of the Mississippi River, about 60 miles downriver from what is now New Orleans.
As a result, the debauchery and excess of Carnival season became a prelude to the 40 days of penance between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. Mardi Gras Began In Mobile, Ala. Mardi Gras spread from Rome across Europe where it then crossed the oceans to the colonies of the New World. Historians believe the first American Mardi Gras occurred in 1703, one year after French explorer Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville established Fort Louis de la Louisiane in what is now Mobile, Ala.