You may have worn a funky mask over the weekend. You may have been to New Orleans before. You may even have seen some awesome pictures of celebrities and partiers at the event.

But until you've been to the Big Easy for its hottest party of the year, everything you think you know about Mardi Gras is probably just plain wrong.

So we asked a handful of New Orleans natives to take us around the most epic six days of partying all year, and show us what Mardi Gras is really all about.