After years of stagnant wage growth, rising living costs people in England and Wales have an average of just Â£7,780 in savings, according to figures from Halifax. Rising costs: The average cost of a funeral as risen by 80 per cent since 2004.
The first Mardi Gras festivities in Louisiana were held on March 3, 1699. On that day, a group of French explorers set up camp on the west bank of the Mississippi River, about 60 miles downriver from what is now New Orleans.
Nathalie Malveaux Alsandor reigned as queen that year. Segregation was still the norm when its first official Mardi Gras festivities began in 1959. By then, the group had become official and prepared to hold its first formal parade event, which got âunderway at the Heymann Recreation Center.â (February 10 th 1959).