Unlike the media portrayal, Mardi Gras is a huge, citywide, family oriented party that residents of the Big Easy throw for themselves. every year.
While Bourbon Street is full of rowdy tourists on Mardi Gras night, this media-created image of Mardi Gras as a drunken, X-rated free-for-all, is more a photo-op than a reality. The vast majority of New Orleans residents, young and old, celebrate Mardi Gras throughout the day, and across the city at many family-friendly events.
Twelfth Night to Fat Tuesday
The day that the rest of the world knows as Mardi Gras, is actually the culminating event of an entire season called Carnival. The season begins on Twelfth Night (January 6th) and ends on Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. The exact date of Mardi Gras varies from year to year because, like Easter, it is based on the lunar calendar. During Carnival a dizzying array of events takes place throughout New Orleans. There are parties, elaborate masquerade balls steeped in tradition and secret rituals, and parades, parades, parades.
Krewes Make it Happen
Billed as the "Greatest Free Show on Earth," Mardi Gras has no official organizing committee, no official theme, no governmental funding, and no corporate sponsorship. The city's Convention and Visitor's Bureau explains: "Mardi Gras is like Christmas and Halloween -- it belongs to everyone." The major functions are bankrolled by private social clubs called krewes, who raise money through dues and fundraising events.
Costumes
Weeks before Mardi Gras, residents across the city get out the papier mache', fabric, feathers, glitter, and sequins and begin to create original costumes. A long-time resident of New Orleans says, " I love that even the most conservative people in New Orleans own wigs, false eyelashes and body glitter, or at least a yellow, green and purple outfit."
Parades!
In the days between Twelfth Night and Fat Tuesday there are no less than 50 parades in and around New Orleans, with the majority occurring in the two weeks prior to Mardi Gras. Parades range from small cavalcades with eight to ten floats and a few marching bands, to huge events with twenty to forty large, exotic floats, numerous marching bands all feverishly trying to out perform one another, dance teams, baton twirlers, and more. The parades are family oriented, kid-friendly events, and the New Orleans Police Department--world-class masters of crowd control--make sure the crowds watching the parades stay family-friendly as well. Though the media focuses its attention on the French Quarter, only one parade actually occurs in the Quarter, and that takes place about two weeks before Mardi Gras.
Mardi Gras Beads and More
Parade floats are moving stages loaded with dozens of costumed riders tossing trinkets, called throws, to the crowds. Beads are the most common throw, followed by drinking cups emblazoned with krewe logos. Other throws include stuffed animals, doubloons, candy, oddities such as Moon Pies, and the highly coveted painted coconuts thrown by the Krewe of Zulu.
On Tuesday, February 5th, 2008, schools, post offices, banks and many businesses will be closed in New Orleans as the residents of the city who have been through so much loss and heartache since Katrina, throw themselves another lovely, community-wide party that celebrates the rich traditions and complex cultures of that unique city. Meanwhile, for most of the rest of the world, February 5th will be just another work day.
