Krewes of Druid and Nyx

Wednesday night, the final week of Carnival kicked off with the Krewe of Ancient Druids and Krewe of Nyx parades. Last year, we braved freezing rain but the skies were clear for this year’s festivities. Druids may have taken their ribbing of female parades too far with their Louisiana Purchase card (our version of food stamps) float displaying a sign reading, “Preferred Card of all Female Mardi Gras Krewes.” But the parade was fun, traditional and featured fun female dance troupes like Organ Grinders and Amelia Earhawts (who seem to be parading every day!).

Krewes of Druid and Nyx Parades

Wednesday was the Krewe of Ancient Druids (established 1998) parade followed by the newest women’s parade – the Mystic Krewe of Nyx in their 3rd year. I’m scrambling to manage my schedule so apologies for not doing links to other sites, photo labels and descriptions of the evening. Since I can’t label the photos (or narrow them down much), here are the dance teams and bands I photographed at Druids: Chalmette, Shine Time, John Ehret, Helen Cox, Gris Gris Strut, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Sci Academy, Sophie B. wright, Xtreme Voltage and Superstar Steppers.

Krewes of Nyx and Ancient Druids

Though the last 2 weeks have been a very big adventure, I’ll admit I’ve missed the simple joy of hanging out with neighbors, dancing to marching bands and collecting a haul of plastic treasure. After a break to host the Super Bowl, Carnival began again last night and the city turned out despite the constant rain. First up was Krewe of Ancient Druids. Founded in 1998, the krewe honors the Celtic priests who acted as mediators between the people and their gods and nature. Their krewe is fairly small with never more than 200 members and secrecy shrouds their membership.

Mardi Gras Decorations (with a Django twist)

Though I love donating my Mardi Gras beads to Arc of Greater New Orleans and Stephan Wanger‘s Guinness-record-breaking mural, my favorite use of parade throws is decorating my home for the season. Though the NFL tried to create a “clean zone” where they could tell us what to decorate our houses with, what signs we could carry and what clothes we could wear (!!!) , the ACLU has stepped in to protect our right to party our way  (I, for one, will be wearing Saints gear every chance I get!). So, I’ve beaded my fence, wreathed my door and redecorated my Christmas tree as a Mardi Gras tree.