Which Mobile society held a 1711 Mardi Gras parade with a papier-mache cow's head?

The Mobile society that held a 1711 Mardi Gras parade with a papier-mâché cow’s head was the Société du Bœuf Gras.

Mobile’s Carnival tradition traces its roots to French Catholic settlers and the city’s early colonial history. The name Bœuf Gras means “fatted ox” or “fat beef,” reflecting the pre-Lenten custom of feasting before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.

In 1711, sixteen men of the Société du Bœuf Gras reportedly pushed a cart carrying a large papier-mâché cow’s head during Mobile’s first known Mardi Gras parade. This early procession predates the better-known Mardi Gras traditions later associated with New Orleans.

The society should not be confused with Mobile’s later mystic organisations, such as the Cowbellion de Rakin Society, the Knights of Revelry, the Infant Mystics or the Order of Myths. Mobile’s parade culture developed through many such societies, whose masked processions, balls and floats shaped the city’s distinctive Carnival season.