Mardi Gras 2027

Mardi Gras has no date of its own. It is defined by its position in front of Lent, and Lent is defined by Easter, so every Mardi Gras date traces back to the Easter calculation. That chain explains why Fat Tuesday can fall anywhere from early February to early March, and why 2027 brings one of the earliest dates in years. For the Easter side of the calculation, see Easter 2027; to count down from any date, use the Countdown Calculator.

How the date of Mardi Gras is set

Lent runs 40 days before Easter, not counting its six Sundays, so it starts 46 days before Easter Sunday on Ash Wednesday. The U.S. Naval Observatory uses the same 46-day offset. Mardi Gras is the day before Ash Wednesday:

For 2027, Easter is March 28. Counting back 28 days reaches February 28, and 19 more days reach February 9, for 47 in all. Because Easter can fall from March 22 to April 25, Mardi Gras can fall from February 3 to March 9. In a leap year the extra day in February moves the earliest possible date to February 4.

A second example shows why leap years matter. Easter 2028 is April 16. Counting back 16 days reaches March 31, and 31 more days, through all of March, reach February 29, again 47 days in total. So Mardi Gras 2028 falls on leap day itself, Tuesday, February 29, 2028. Had 2028 been a common year, the same Easter would have put Mardi Gras on February 28.

Mardi Gras dates from 2023 to 2032

The season column counts the days from Twelfth Night on January 6 through Mardi Gras, both included.

The spread is wide: the 2025 season ran 58 days and the 2030 season will run 59, while 2027 gets only 35. Across the century from 2000 to 2099, Mardi Gras falls in February 75 times and in March 25 times, and February 9 occurs only in 2016 and 2027. The season length ranges from 31 days (2008) to 63 days (2038).

A short Carnival season in 2027

Carnival traditionally opens on Twelfth Night, January 6, the feast of the Epiphany, which falls on a Wednesday in 2027. From there to Fat Tuesday is just 35 days, the shortest season since 2016 and well below the 43 days of 2026. That leaves five full weekends between Twelfth Night and Mardi Gras, compared with eight in a late year such as 2030, so krewes that stage balls and parades have fewer Saturdays to share. The final stretch looks like this:

• Wednesday, January 6: Twelfth Night, the traditional start of Carnival and of king cake season.
• Saturday, February 6 and Sunday, February 7: the last Carnival weekend before Fat Tuesday.
• Monday, February 8: Lundi Gras, the Monday before Fat Tuesday.
• Tuesday, February 9: Mardi Gras, the last day before Lent.
• Wednesday, February 10: Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.
• Sunday, February 14: Valentine's Day, which in 2027 is the first Sunday of Lent.
• Monday, February 15: Washington's Birthday (Presidents Day), a federal holiday.

Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday and Pancake Day

"Mardi Gras" is French for "Fat Tuesday," a name that refers to the last day of eating rich food before the Lenten fast. English-speaking churches call the same day Shrove Tuesday, from "shrive," to hear confession and grant absolution before Lent. In Britain and parts of the Commonwealth it is also Pancake Day, after the custom of using up eggs, butter and sugar. All three names describe Tuesday, February 9, 2027.

Is Mardi Gras a holiday?

Nationally, no. Mardi Gras is not a federal holiday, so on February 9, 2027 federal offices, Federal Reserve Banks, post offices and the New York Stock Exchange all operate normally. In Louisiana the answer is different. State law, R.S. 1:55, lists "the day of Mardi Gras" among Louisiana's days of public rest and legal holidays. For Orleans Parish and the other parishes named in the statute, Mardi Gras is a holiday when the local governing authority declares it by ordinance, and the same law requires banks in a group of listed parishes to close that day. Louisiana also lists Good Friday, which in 2027 falls on March 26. Outside Louisiana, check with your employer or school, since a Tuesday holiday is uncommon.

A short history of Mardi Gras in Louisiana

The Louisiana State Museum traces the celebration to the French explorer Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, who marked his arrival at the mouth of the Mississippi River on Shrove Tuesday. His expedition reached the river in 1699, and the same calculation used on this page puts Shrove Tuesday that year on Tuesday, March 3, 1699, since France already used the Gregorian calendar. In the Creole society that followed, Twelfth Night balls featured a cake with a hidden bean or nut, the ancestor of today's king cake.

The modern form took shape in 1857, when the Mistick Krewe of Comus staged a formal night procession and turned Carnival into an organized spectacle built on mystery and surprise. The Twelfth Night Revelers have kept a bean-and-queen ritual since 1871, and Rex, founded within fifteen years of Comus, gained prominence by billing its monarchs as the king and queen of Carnival.

Sources

• Louisiana State Museum: Mardi Gras in Louisiana.
• Louisiana State Legislature: R.S. 1:55, Days of public rest, legal holidays, and half-holidays.
• U.S. Naval Observatory: Selected Christian Observances (Ash Wednesday and Easter dates) and The Date of Easter.
• U.S. Office of Personnel Management: Federal Holidays (Mardi Gras is not among them).