Carnival is a season. Mardi Gras is a day (Fat Tuesday). Though there have already been several parades this year, most of us still think of the French Quarter’s satirical Krewe du Vieux Saturday night parade as the official-unofficial start of “parade season.” Since 2019, Krewe Boheme (with a Covid interruption) has been rolling the preceding Friday. The whimsical Bywater/Marigny/French Quarter walking parade was established by artists and the krewe’s symbol is a green fairy – the nickname for absinthe, a super-intoxicating liqueur. Continue reading
Tag Archives: mardi gras
Mardi Gras Indians – Super Sunday 2022
Like the St. Patrick’s festivities, Super Sunday was cancelled in 2020. And 2021. It’s one of my favorite days of the year so I was schoolgirl-giddy heading to A.L. Davis Park to see the Mardi Gras Indian tribes gather to show off their incredible suits of beads, ribbons, jewels and feathers.
Weighing up to 150 pounds and costing thousands of dollars, the Uptown tribes’ suits feature elaborately beaded panels portraying battle scenes, nature, goddesses, and local iconography. Continue reading
Filed under Culture, decorations and costumes, free events and lagniappe, history, parade
Fat Tuesday 2022 – Costumes!!!
Fat Tuesday – Mardi Gras in French – splits the city into parade-goers and costumers. Parade-goers go to the Krewe of Zulu and Krewe of Rex parades, with diehards staying for the truck parade. We’re costumers so we spent the day wandering the French Quarter and Marigny taking in all the fun and fabulous ideas people came up with this year.
Last year was so quiet so it was wonderful to see all the colorful silliness and ingenuity on display. There were a lot of Ukraine costumes this year. Continue reading
Krewe of Red Beans
I’ve explained before that there’s more than one Mardi Gras. On Lundi Gras (Monday before Fat Tuesday) we’re usually Uptown for the epic Krewe of Orpheaus Parade. The floats and bands are incredible and the weather promised to be mild for the nighttime parade. This year, we decided to attend the Krewe of Red Beans parade in the Marigny instead.
Founded in 2009, the Krewe of Red Beans began with a small group of school teachers and newcomers to New Orleans. Continue reading
Krewe of Iris 2022
The Krewe of Iris was established in 1917 – making it the oldest all-female krewe. Hand-decorated sunglasses are the Krewe’s’ signature throw and I caught 4 pair! Iris has gorgeous feminine, vividly-colored floats. My favorite is still the woman’s face with long, flowing, strawberry blonde hair – purple irises nested in the locks. Continue reading
Krewe of Sparta Parade 2022
The Krewes of Sparta and Pygmalion end the 5-parade Saturday on St. Charles. Sparta is a fairly traditional parade with masked riders – both on the floats and on the horses that lead the way. I was excited to see the flambeaux lighting the Avenue as they have since before the invention of electricity. It’d been 2 years since we’d been entertained by the guys twirling their flames for tips in any parades.
The floats featured phoenix’s and fairy queens. Crowds especially reacted to the dragons – one carried Continue reading