Mardi Gras in N’awlins
Posted on February 18, 2009
Filed Under Adventures | Leave a Comment
Posted by Sierra
As the marching bands pass by, people scream at floats, waving their hands for beads. The crowd cheers and gasps as a teenage girl twirls a flaming baton high up in the air and catches it. They jump up when they see the “throwers” on the floats are about to toss something cool. Where are you? At a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans.
Since New Orleans (pronounced New Orleeens by ignorant tourists and N’awlins by locals) is the rainiest major city in the country, it often literally rains on your parade, but true parade-goers don’t care. They wave and catch (and, in Dad’s case, get hit on the head while trying to take a picture) beads. They end up walking away with more than a few strands.
Mardi Gras parades started as small celebrations held by a secret society of rich Caucasian men. Then came the first all African-American parade, Zulu, which mocked the secret societies’ parades. Eventually the first all-woman parade, Isis, came along. Then everyone decided “What the heck, all this segregation is dumb!” and let women be in men’s parades, African-Americans be in Caucasian parades, and so on.
We saw about 6 parades:
*Two at night (Excalibur and Atlas)
*Two during the day (Pontchartrain, theme: Can You Name That Love Song? and Carrollton, theme: A Fair to Remember)
*Two that we didn’t see all of (Barkus, theme: Batmutt and the Dark Knight, and King Arthur)
My Favorites: Favorite Nighttime parade: Atlas
Why: Each float represented a different place (e.g., Hawaii, Hollywood). There were great beads, fantastic floats, and good non-beads (e.g., cups, fake roses). It had marching bands and dance teams with creative costumes. Floats were thematically decorated. For example, the Hollywood float had a giant film reel in the front and the Hawaii float had lots of flowers. The parade had this special nighttime touch so they sparkled under the lights.
Favorite Daytime parade: Carrollton, “A Fair to Remember.”
Why: Each float represented a different part of the Louisiana World’s Fair (e.g., Petroleum Pavillion, Nightly Parades). We got a TON of beads, and I caught a plastic lobster. I liked the Eiffel Tower, small as it was, and the way that the “throwers” costumes matched the themes of the floats. For example, the people on the Japan float wore (somewhat grotesque) Japanese masks.
In addition to many strands of beads around our necks, we also have hundreds of strands in a bag. This bag weighs about ten pounds. We also have cups, a few stuffed animals (including a crab), a plastic lobster, and some Moon Pies. But remembering jumping up and down for beads, I think, “What could be more fun.
Comments
Leave a Reply