some major misconceptions i had about mardi gras:
- i thought it was a one day or maybe a weekend thing. hell no!! in fact, it's many weeks to a couple months long! it starts on three king's day (jan 6th) thru fat tuesday (which is what mardi gras translates to). so it ends the day before ash wednesday, which starts the beginning of lent. because the day before lent, you gotta eat up all your goodies so they won't go bad (cause traditionally you gave up meat etc. for the approx 40 days of lent), hence it being called fat tuesday. so depending on when easter is, mardi gras SEASON can literally be two months long. it was a short season in 2024 (feb 13th), but in 2025 it'll go until march 4th.
- mardi gras IS carnival! there are SO many traditions relating to mardi gras and many of them are specific to the region where it's being celebrated. in the american south, we call it mardi gras, and there are A LOT of different celebrations throughout the south, but the most popular one is the one in new orleans. but nola wasn't even the first in the states, that was in mobile, alabama.
- i thought it was all boobs and butts. not so!! in fact it's very family friendly! the raunchiest stuff in on bourbon street, which is easily avoidable since none of the major parades go thru there.
- as you can imagine from a multi-week event, there are lots and lots of celebrations, mostly in the form of parades. and there are multiple parades every weekend, with escalating numbers leading up to the big day.
- many nola adjacent towns also host a parade or two
- there are many types of parades! from those on land, to the ones on boats in the water. there are those with floats, those without, and those FOR dogs. they all have their own flair, and are all special. regardless, they all have music and "throws" (free stuff given out to the audience).
i was very thankful for all the parades i was able to attend! all told, i went to 17. 17!!! this must be some type of record lol. i wonder if i would have seen more if we'd done this trip in 2025 when i assume there may be more parades, considering carnival is several weeks longer?
krewes i saw (cause sometimes two of them would be in the same parade):
- bilge: in slidell on boats
- poseidon: in slidell
- excalibur: in metarie
- dionysus: in slidell
- mystic krewe of music: in westbank
- driods: in uptown
- nyx: in uptown
- selene: in slidell
- bacchus: in uptown, they had the best throws, lighted up beads themed to the floats!
- red beans: in uptown, a walking krewe, one of my favorites
- proteus: uptown
- orpheaus: uptown
- zulu: uptown, zulu warriors! coconuts!
- st anne: french quarter, also a walking krewe that i really loved, really beautiful costumes
- rex: uptown, with the prettiest japanese themed floats! (i also feel like they really did their homework for these? definitely appreciation, not appropriation)
- mardi paws: dog parade in covington
