When is Mardi Gras 2024? Get ready for a shorter Carnival (2024)

The jubilant parades and creative costumes of Mardi Gras returned on Fat Tuesday, with most New Orleans krewes back on their pre-pandemic parade routes and a sense of normalcy returned to the big party.

If this year's Carnivalfelt short, get ready for the 2024 season to go by in a flash. Mardi Gras next year falls eight days earlier, on Feb. 13, the day before Valentine's Day.

With 12th Night on Jan. 6 marking the start of Carnival, that means the 2024 season will last 38 days, compared to the 46-day season of 2023.

Mardi Gras last fell on Feb. 13in 2018.

Why isn't Mardi Gras on the same day?

Mardi Gras falls on a different date each year, a system thatrevolves around Easter, which also doesn't happen the same day every year.Buckle up, because this calculation involves math, astronomy and religion.

Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or after the day of the vernal equinox, March 21.

That means Easter can never occur before March 22 or later than April 25.

What's an ecclesiastical full moon?

The Astronomical Applications Department of the U.S. Naval Observatory explains that "the full moon involved is not the astronomical full moon but an ecclesiastical moon (determined from Catholic Church tables) that keeps, more or less, in step with the astronomical full moon."

So what does this have to do with Mardi Gras?

Mardi Gras is set 47 days before Easter, and it falls on a Tuesday between Feb. 3 and March 9. These two dates are extra special, because Mardi Gras will fall on them only once in a lifetime, each occurring roughly once every 100 to 150 years. Read more here.

Mardi Gras is also the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, which the Catholic Church and some Protestant churches observe leading up to Easter as a time of repentance, marked by fasting, abstinence, prayer and almsgiving.

Here's the Mardi Gras schedule for the next several years:

• 2025: March 4
• 2026: Feb. 17
• 2027: Feb. 9
• 2028: Feb. 29

If you want to be a few years ahead — or even decades ahead — on your Mardi Gras and Easter plans, here is a list of Easter dates through 2299, courtesyof the Astronomical Society of South Australia.

Part of this report was originally published on Feb. 14, 2018,by Melinda Daffin.