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MARDI GRAS

M ardi Gras lends itself to a legion of overwrought descriptions, a glossary of purple prose and myriad events, occasions, traditions and postures. Yet it is so misunderstood. To quote one of my favorite writers (me): “To encapsulate the notion of Mardi Gras as nothing more than a big drunk is to take the simple and stupid way out. Mardi Gras is not a parade. Mardi Gras is not girls flashing on French Quarter balconies.Mardi Gras is not an alcoholic binge. Mardi Gras is the love of life. It is the harmonic convergence of our food, our music, our creativity, our eccentricity, our neighborhoods and our joy of living. All at once.” But to get closer to the bone, I quote the simple, concise phrasing of another one of my favorite writers (Sly Stone): “It’s a family affair.” It’s the annual gathering of Gulf Coast souls to celebrate the triumph of the human spirit. (With, admittedly, a lot of parades.) From Lake Charles, Lafayette and Baton Rouge to Houma, Morgan City, Mobile and Gulf Shores, Mardi Gras is the Gulf Coast’s blessed feast of family, friends, festivities, frolics, fantastical notions and frightfully good fun. In fact, it’s reach actually goes far beyond the provincial realm of the South; one of my favorite Mardi Gras memories occurred on a ski lift at Cascade, a molehill of a “mountain” outside of Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, birthplace of the world’s first indoor water park (think Vegas for kids) and home to hundreds of miles of waterslides, both indoor and out.

renegade wielding a Weed Eater. (Words do it no justice; the Push Mow parade is even more breathtaking in person!) My dog Biscuit was once Queen of the Barkus parade in New Orleans, one of many canine convocations that occur throughout the region, wherein thoroughly puzzled, loyal mutts are subject to the sartorial whims and attendant humiliation visited upon them by their overzealous guardians. (See page 44.) But hey, who says humans should be the only ones to be a part of Carnival! There is something for everyone, everywhere, at Mardi Gras — parades and processions to serve all places and populations, massive public spectacles and intimate community gatherings, and the occasional secret society catering to the whims of the gentry, geeks, drag queens (page 42), Elks, Shriners, Elvis impersonators, mermaids, Mardi Gras Indian tribes (page 38), Skull & Bones gangs and the mysterious chosen few whose identities are never revealed — like I said, it’s for everyone. From the mystic societies of Mobile (page 18), to Spanish Town’s Mystic Krewe for the Preservation of Lagniappe in Louisiana (page 12), to the “gangs” and “tribes” of Pigeon Town and the Ninth Ward, from the boat parades of Slidell, Madisonville, Lake Charles and Orange Beach, we are all brothers and sisters of different titles seeking the same state of grace imbued by the high holy season of revelry, laughter and forgetting.

I took my kids there one Mardi Gras to teach them to ski and, as we rode the lazy ski lift up the slopes, we were greeted at eye level by pine tree branches draped and bespangled with Mardi Gras beads, deposited there over the years by Southern revelers who’d escaped to the frozen tundra for Carnival season, showing the Cheesehead Nation what an authentic “Mardi Gras tree” looks like. It looks like heaven in the white hills. Everyone has their Mardi Gras stories and memories; every place has its annual traditions and sacred rituals. I have ridden in the Courir de Mardi Gras in Eunice, Louisiana, one of the exotic and intoxicating trail rides that take place all over Acadiana each year, wherein fabulously costumed revelers on horses trample through the countryside at dawn, chasing terrified chickens across prairies and farmlands in hopes of contributing to each community’s massive gumbo feast that closes out the day. (For more on Cajun Mardi Gras, where the chicken runs are celebrated, see page 24.) I once presided as King of the annual Push Mow parade in Abita Springs, a ragtag ensemble of local eccentrics and oddities pushing — and riding — their beloved Poulans and John Deeres, plus the occasional

illustrations by Mark Andresen

There are nearly two dozen Mississippi Gulf Coast parades. Biloxi, the first city in Mississippi to host an official Mardi Gras, back in 1908, is the center of the festivities. King d’Iberville and Queen Ixolib (that’s Biloxi spelled backwards) reign as official royalty of the Gulf Coast Carnival Association. Other cities along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, including Gulfport, Ocean Springs and Diamondhead, also hold parades. Some, like the Ocean Springs Elks Parade and Gulfport’s Krewe of Gemini, feature floats and trucks, while other smaller parades are made up of decorated cars and golf carts.

For family-friendly fun and great music check out Family Gras, a three-day celebration of carnival held on the neutral ground of Veterans Memorial Boulevard, across from the Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie. Parades, including those of the krewes of Excalibur, Athena, Napoleon and Caesar — the largest Carnival organization in Jefferson Parish — roll right alongside the neutral ground.

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