One of Mobile's most popular parades, the Mystics of Time, comes out on the Saturday before Mardi Gras and unleashes smoke-breathing dragons on the streets of the city.

The MOT formed in 1948 and first paraded the next year. As the story goes, a group of friends, while playing their regular poker game, started discussing forming a new Mardi Gras group.

One day, in the old Azalea Grill, that group bumped into a group of men who were members of another parading organization but were disenchanted with that organization. Together, they formed the Mystics of Time.

This year MOT will parade on March 1 at 5:45 p.m. with the theme Time Flies. The parade will include 20 floats by The Royal Artists. Costumes are by Seams to Be and Bienville Costumes.

MOT follows the newish Route H, and the first segment of that - from Dearborn and Government to Church and Claiborne - will be floats only. Anyone on that stretch of Government gets to see the floats (and catch stuff) three times.

The rest of the parade joins in at the intersection of Claiborne and Church streets.

Check this page later for photos and video of the 2025 parade. To see the Mask's exclusive photo album of the 2024 Mystics of Time parade, place your cursor on the image below and click on the arrows.

To see the Mask's exclusive HD video of that parade, click HERE.

To see the Mask's exclusive HD video of the 2018 Mystics of Time parade, click HERE.
To see the Mask's exclusive album of photos from that parade, place your cursor on the image below and click on the arrows.

2024

2019

2016

2018

To see the Mask's exclusive HD video of the 2019 Mystics of Time parade, click HERE.
To see the Mask's exclusive album of photos from that parade, place your cursor on the image below and click on the arrows.

To see the Mask's exclusive HD video of the 2023 Mystics of Time parade, click HERE.
To see the Mask's exclusive album of photos from that parade, place your cursor on the image below and click on the arrows.

2022

To see the Mask's exclusive HD video of the 2016 Mystics of Time parade, click HERE.
To see the Mask's exclusive album of photos from that parade, place your cursor on the image below and click on the arrows.

2017

2023

To see the Mask's exclusive HD video of the 2022 Mystics of Time parade, click HERE.
To see the Mask's exclusive album of photos from that parade, place your cursor on the image below and click on the arrows.

To see the Mask's exclusive HD video of the 2017 Mystics of Time parade, click HERE.
To see the Mask's exclusive album of photos from that parade, place your cursor on the image below and click on the arrows.

To see the Mask's exclusive HD video of the 2020 Mystics of Time parade, click HERE.
To see the Mask's exclusive album of photos from that parade, place your cursor on the image below and click on the arrows.

Archive

2020

 Mystics of Time