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Mardi Gras Celebration (U.S.)

New Orleans

image by Dave Martucci, 28 December 1999

Description of the flag
Variant flag
Stars and stripes in Mardi Gras colors

See also:

Description of the flag

The purple/yellow/green triband with crown - which may appear either vertical or per bend sinister, & with the crown in either purple (usual) or green (rarely) - is indeed the MARDI GRAS celebration flag!!!! Mardi Gras (Shrove Tuesday) is celebrated - usually in New Orleans - before Lent.
Robert Lloyd Wheelock, 10 July 1999

Let me just add that, apart from New Orleans, this celebration is worldwide famous also in such places such as Venice or Rio de Janeiro, usually under the name "Carnaval", "Carnevale" also (which originated the different meaning english word "carnival"). "Mardi Gras" is the third and last of this three day celebration (called in portuguese "Fat Sunday", "Fat Monday" and "Fat Tuesday" -- the same as "Mardi Gras"), before sorrow Ash Wednesday (Lent?), the first of days of fast that precede Easter.

I draw attention to the Carnaval (Mardi Gras, not carnival) in Rio, where can be seen in all it's splendor the samba school's flags, usually gyronny of many. Other cities in Brazil (and even abroad) also follow this tradition.

António Martins-Tuválkin, 11 July 1999

Variant Design

image submitted by Dov Gutterman, 1 March 2001
source: webshots.com

While checking what's new at webshots.com I found this image at the new Mardi Gras Art collection titled as: Mardi Gras Pride.
Dov Gutterman, 1 March 2001

There is no "official" Mardi Gras flag, AFAIK. In New Orleans you can find all sorts of flags in the P-Y-V combination: vertical horizontal, probably diagonal, with or without the crown, and the colors not always in the same order. But wave them they do!
Al Kirsch, 1 March 2001

Stars and stripes in Mardi Gras colors

image by Joe McMillan and António Martins-Tuválkin, 11 December 2023

Here’s a fun variation of the U.S. flag using the green-yellow-purple color scheme of the New Orleans’ Mardi Gras celebrations, instead of the usual red-white-blue.
I found a single example of this flag design, as the paintjob on this heavily modded Volkswagen Typ 2, photographed in New Orleans in 2007:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MarentoAntiflagBusAug07Front.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MarengoAntiflagBusAug07BackLeft.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MarengoAntiflagBusAug07Distance.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MarentoAntiflagBusAug07FrontLeft.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MarentoAntiflagBusAug07RightSideBack.jpg
but there might be more examples.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 11 December 2023

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 13 December 2023

Not the same thing, but https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments showed a somewhat similar flag in Minnesota this year.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 13 December 2023

That flag is derived from a similar flag used by the fans of New Orleans Saints football club by changing the club colors with the Mardi Gras colors.

Sources:
[1] American Black and Gold Flag website: http://www.americanblackandgoldflag.com
[2] Flickr - Photo from New Orleans, on 2011-03-06: https://www.flickr.com/photos
[3] Flickr - Photo from New Orleans, on 2012-02-05: https://www.flickr.com/photos
[4] Flickr - Photo from New Orleans, on 2016-02-07: https://www.flickr.com/photos
[5] Rick Holmes' blog - Entry on 2018-02-16: https://www.rickholmes.net/new-page-1 (image)
[6] Flickr - Photo from New Orleans, on 2019-03-03: https://www.flickr.com/photos
[7] WWL-TV television station website - Report on 2020-02-06 (video displaying the flag @00:36-00:40)
https://www.wwltv.com
[8] Alamy photo archive - Photo from Mobile, Alabama on 2021-02-19: https://www.alamy.com
[9] Alamy photo archive - Photo from Mobile, Alabama on 2021-02-19: https://www.alamy.com
Tomislav Todorovic, 13 December 2023