On the Sixth of January, as the rest of New Orleans is enjoying King Cake, so is the group called the Twelfth Night Revelers. TNR, though, does something slightly different with theirs though. Rather than to select the poor soul who must buy the next cake, TNR uses their king cake to select the young lady who will reign, along with this krewe’s male monarch – The Lord of Misrule, as queen over that evening’s ball.

All of the debutantes presented in the ball line up around the [wooden] cake and pull out a bean. All but one pull out silver beans, and are thus the evening’s maids. The other young lady pulls out a golden bean and is rushed off to don her queenly attire. Although her parents do know of the impending selection, it is a complete surprise to the girl herself.

This inaugural ball of the Carnival season is steeped in tradition. In keeping with the cake theme, the krewe members are masked as chefs. The organization first appeared on the 6th of January in 1870 with a parade and a ball, but after six years of parading, they continued their existence with only a ball. Thus TNR was the first krewe to have only a ball. TNR paved the way for such groups as the Atlanteans, the Elves of Oberon, and the Caliph’s of Cairo, whose trademark style would be celebrating only with a ball.