Mardi Gras in Mobile

Mobile's Mardi Gras is the city's defining event and, by local reckoning, the oldest Carnival celebration in the United States, dating to 1703. The season runs from the weeks after Christmas to Fat Tuesday and fills the downtown streets with parades, floats and costumed riders from the city's mystic societies, who throw beads, trinkets and the city's signature MoonPies to the crowds. The tone is more neighborly and family-oriented than the better-known celebration in New Orleans, with children on shoulders, picnic chairs on the curbs and neighbors who have held the same spots for generations. Joe Cain Day, held on the Sunday before Fat Tuesday, is the city's most distinctive day, honoring the man credited with reviving the tradition after the Civil War, and it is a joyful, irreverent procession through the old cemetery and downtown streets.

What to know. Most parades are free to watch, and the main routes pass through downtown. The crowds are manageable compared with larger cities, but the busiest days around the final weekend fill up early, so plan your arrival and parking. Bring a folding chair or find a spot early, and learn the local catch phrase: throws are shouted for, and locals are generous with children. Evening parades are the most dramatic, with lit floats and marching bands, and daytime parades are popular with families. Many streets are closed to traffic, so walk where possible.

Beyond the parades. The season includes balls, king cake tastings, community events and the lighting of the Mardi Gras tree in January. Restaurants and bakeries produce special menus and king cakes throughout the season, and hotels fill up for the final weekends, so book accommodation months ahead. Outside the season, the Mobile Carnival Museum tells the same story in a historic house, and the tourism board's free-day events and festivals bring the tradition into other times of year.

At New Year's Eve, Mobile marks the end of the year with MoonPie Over Mobile, a downtown celebration in which a giant MoonPie descends from a downtown tower.

Make the most of it. Pair a parade with the Downtown Mobile Food Tour, which explains the seasonal food traditions, and with the Mobile Carnival Museum for the costumes and history. Stay downtown to walk to the routes, and consider the Old Mobile Evening Food Tour on a non-parade evening. Families should plan for early daytime parades and bring ear protection for young children near the marching bands.

Visitors who want the quieter side of the season can come in the weeks before the final weekend, when the parades are smaller and the hotels cheaper, and still catch a sense of why the people of Mobile guard the tradition so fiercely.

A few last pieces of advice. Check the parade schedule and routes in advance, since they change from year to year, and arrive early for good viewing spots. Bring cash for food vendors, a bag for throws, a light rain jacket and comfortable shoes. Respect local customs, such as the family areas along the routes and the rules about ladders and chairs.

Park a few blocks away and walk, because road closures begin early. After the parade, the downtown restaurants and bars are busy, so make dinner reservations well ahead. And if you can, talk to the people standing beside you, because the stories behind the tradition are half the fun.