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February 2001

New Orleans (Mardi Gras)

David Aaronson
2005-09-25 16:51:22

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On the morning of Mardi Gras the parades start at about 8:00 AM. The Zulu parade is first, followed by Rex and then an interminable string of "truck parades". We didn't quite make Zulu as it was a tad early for us so we showed up on Canal Street in between Zulu and Rex and found ourselves amidst the Krewe of Comus. One of the older Krewes, Comus no longer has an official parade.

Instead they dress up oddly and mill about unofficially. Take for instance these beignets. Beignets are a New Orleans speciality pastry which consists of some fried dough and several pounds of powdered sugar. They are notably served at Cafe du Monde. Here we have three beignets, one cup of coffee, and some sugar (with spoon) (1). There's a lot of other stuff going on here too but we're not even going to try and describe it.

Not everyone who is elaborately dressed is necessarily part of Comus and some strangeness can be found pretty much everywhere in New Orleans on Mardi Gras day. I don't know that we saw any costuming as elaborate though as that in the Krewe of Comus. You may notice the prevalence of beads here (2). Even beignets and angels wear beads on Mardi Gras day.

In between parades when there are no objects flying through the air people generally just mill about and compliment each other on their choice of outlandish fashion accessories. We talked to people representing a pretty good geographical cross-section of the US from Miami to Seattle and quite a few foreigners as well. Perhaps the most alarming comment we heard the entire time was on TV. The New Orleans stations were broadcasting live from all over the city and at one suburban parade a lady was crowing, "I caught a puppy! My very first Mardi Gras and I caught a dog!" The announcer made an oblique reference at that point to various adult beverages. We remain unsure but certainly we saw no flying mammals.

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