Letting the Good Times Roll at Kings Parade in Moss Point

This year, the City of Moss Point kicked off the carnival season with a Kings Parade.

In Moss Point, they set the tone for the start of carnival season here on the Coast. Mayor Billy Knight said, “First thing after Christmas is the beginning of Mardi Gras season. We’re going to be the first parade kicked off. So, we’re happy to be able to do.”

The city has always been vibrant with Mardi Gras fever with Mobile just east of I-10, but this year, it established its first-ever Kings Parade.  “We had the parade many, many years ago. When I was elected, one of the things I told our Main Street Association is that I really want to bring the Mardi Gras Parade back. People enjoyed themselves, everybody telling me how much they appreciate us for bringing it back.”

“We’re from New Orleans. So, we love Mardi Gras. We love the parades.”

As for where the Kings Parade originated from? Sue Wright with Moss Point Main Street Association said, “Inspired by the International Celebration of the Three Kings Parade. So, worldwide, the Three Kings Parade and the Day of Epiphany is bigger than Christmas. So, it’s the day that the Wise Men came and brought their gifts to Baby Jesus. So, that’s the spirit of our parade is giving back.”

Long-time Moss Point resident and Historian Harry McDonald said, “Mardi Gras is not a Moss Point event, but in going back and studying history, some of our young men back in the 1880s and 90s had gone to Mobile and caught the fever. They came back and they did a lot of yelling and screaming. So, really, we’ve had the atmosphere for a long time.”

McDonald served as the parade’s first-ever River King, symbolic to the River City, a city still recovering from a recent tornado but has not stopped them from being glued together by rich history and new traditions. “People don’t know what we’ve got hidden, but we got it right here.”

“There have been sporadic Mardi Gras movements, but now there’s momentum behind Mardi Gras with an organization as well structured and established as Main Street, Mardi Gras will become a regular tradition.”