A Mardi Gras Parade

I saw the biggest parade of Mardi Gras three days before Mardi Gras Day.  Carnival (Mardi Gras) begins the 12th night after Christmas day, with the parades beginning and happening every day/night thereafter until Mardi Gras Day concludes it all. There were a total of 64 of them in the New Orleans area this year. The biggest and most elaborate one, the one that draws such huge crowds that it is often hard to even get to the parade route, is the Krew of Endymion. It is about Endymion that I write today in hopes of  passing to you a little understanding of what a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade is like.

Those parades are all paid for by private carnival groups which are open to anyone who wishes to pay the dues and join. So there is no government involvement in a Mardi Gras parade apart from regulating the route and time the carnival krewe is permitted to use, providing police to oversee the parade route and cleaning the streets after each parade. It, like most of Mardi Gras, is free to all and has thus earned the name 'The Greatest Free Show on Earth'.

Each parade has parade has bands, various riding groups, musicians and of course the parade floats. Some floats are elaborate and beautiful, while others are funny and satirical. Many krewes have a theme to their parade each year, and so floats are created to reflect those themes. Millions of dollars are poured into making these floats, and they're not made overnight.  Krewes work on these creations year-round, often at secret "dens" around the city. On parade day, hundreds krewe members will ride on the floats, tossing beads and other "throws" of all types (everything, for example, from shoes to food to toilet rolls with the krewe emblem on each) to cheering crowds.  The average parade rolls over 10 miles or so and takes about 6 hours to complete its route.

I think you get the general idea, and you can Google 'New Orleans Mardi Gras parade video' or even 'Endymion parade 2014 video' to see one. What I have for you are some pictures and a very short video clip of the Endymion parade.  The first four photos below show the street along which I viewed Endymion. Notice the houses are sometimes decorated to welcome the parade as it passes.  The next photo shows how people set up barbecue pits, tents , chairs etc., on the median area of the street in order to eat, drink, listen music and socialize before the parade arrives. The next four show some of the floats in the parade and the crowd waving to catch throws from the float riders. (The last float is shown in the dark because that parade began late in the day. By mid point of the passing parade, darkness had set in necessitating the float lighting you see).

As you can tell, a Mardi Gras parade is not viewed passively. It is a participation event. Finally, to see how much fun these participation parades are I have a very short video clip of the last float that I am sending in a second E mail (it's too large to include in this one). A late 'Happy Mardi Gras' to you!