#69 Feb 2015 New Orleans Mardi Gras!

We had many questions about the total Mardi Gras event and now have some insights.

Mardi Gras starts with Epiphany on January 6th and runs until Shrove Tuesday / Fat Tuesday / Mardi Gras day which is the day before Lent. Lent is 40 days before Easter so the duration of Mardi Gras changes each year.

The first parade in New Orleans was in 1857 with 2 floats by a “krewe” of 6 people assisted by 52 locals. The City of New Orleans now sanctions over 50 krewes, which is the name adopted for Mardi Gras parade groups. They are not for profit organizations whose only purpose is to host a parade and an official party during Mardi Gras. Every krewe is scrutinized by the city. The riders on the floats must be in costume with a full mask, hence, the very fanciful masks everywhere in the city.

Rex, the king of Mardi Gras, and his queen are the only people not masked during the parade.

The floats are owned by each crew and decorated by “Mardi Gras World” which has several warehouses around the city and internationally. We toured their warehouse and gained insight into the floats and parades.

We were fortunate to see the 2015 floats for Orpheus Krewe as they had not started to dismantle the decorations. The basic structures are reused each year.

Each krewe sets a theme for their parade and conveys their ideas to Mardi Gras World, which starts work on the floats the day after Mardi Gras. Each float is an artistic, engineering marvel. Overhead street lights limit the height.

The riders are secured onto the float by anchors such as the one by Ralph’s elbow. During the parade many people get overexcited and grab for throws.

Floats must be towed by a tractor such as this one, which has been enhanced to handle floats that may be seven or eight units long. There may be 30 people on each unit and they bring aboard up to 300 pounds of throws. Some floats have two levels of participants.

Floats can also be human, mule or horse drawn.

Dress up is encouraged during the tour.

Decorations were originally made from wire and paper Mache. Now they are constructed from styrofoam or fiberglass and covered with paper Mache, then painted. They may be changed and reused many times.

This is just over half the length of the warehouse full of floats from one krewe.

Another year we hope to return to experience Mardi Gras in New Orleans knowing what to expect.