Mardi Gras is the big party before Lent, celebrated with parades, music, costumes and masks. In New Orleans people catch beads thrown from colorful floats, while in Venice and Rio de Janeiro the streets fill with dancers and spectacular masks. Our Mardi Gras coloring pages bring that festive mood to paper: decorated masks with feathers and jewels, kids dressed up as harlequins and jesters, marching bands, parade floats and showers of confetti. Little ones can start with one big mask to decorate, while older kids can choose busy parade scenes with lots of patterns to fill in. Planning a costume party? Print a mask, color it and cut it out. Love dressing up? Take a look at our Halloween and Birthday coloring pages too. The traditional Mardi Gras colors are purple, green and gold, standing for justice, faith and power. Try those on a feathered mask, add glitter dots or diamonds of a harlequin pattern, and make every feather a different shade.