Mardi Gras returns to St. Peter’s
Feb. 10 marked the return of St. Peter Catholic Church’s annual Mardi Gras party. Following a three-year hiatus after the covid-19 lockdown, the annual occasion returned for its 27th year.
For more than a quarter century, the Altar and Rosary Society has hosted a congregational gathering at the church on the Saturday evening before Fat Tuesday.
In the early 1950’s, St. Peter Parochial School erected a gymnasium to provide recreational space for the institution’s youth. Since closing the school a few years back, the block building at the corner of 15th Avenue and Alabama Street is still well utilized as St. Peter Family Center. The walls of the center were decorated with images depicting Mardi Gras and the French Quarter.
Rainy conditions did little to dampen the celebratory spirit of the evening. Some 100 revelers of all ages, from toddlers to octogenarians, donned masks, beads and their Mardi Gras finery. The family center was filled with traditional New Orleans music, the aroma of simmering gumbo, laughter, line dancing, king cake and good cheer in preparation for the coming Easter season.
The event opened with a prayer and blessing by parish priest, Father Andreas Kedati.
“I’m so glad you are here sacrificing your time to be with us,” he said.
Other activities included the crowning of a new Mardi Gras court, a second line parade dance around the gym and serving of Cajun gumbo, Hispanic hominy and pork pozole.
Among the attendees was Pine Bluff Mayor Shirley Washington.
“I think this is a wonderful, festive event in Pine Bluff,” Washington said. “It gives citizens something different to do and the fellowship is the most important thing.”
Barbara Akins presided over the crowning of the 2024 Mardi Gras court.
“It’s been a while since we did this and it’s a comeback for St. Peter Church,” Akins said. “It’ll take a while for us to get back to where we were in 2020 when we had 300 attendees but
we’re going to keep doing this.”
Regarding the new Mardi Gras Queen, Akins said, “Nola Harrison was a founding member of our Mardi Gras committee and has been with us from the beginning. Now she is bringing us back as our new queen.”
Asked from whence her name “Nola” is derived, Harrison said, “My mother always wanted to live in New Orleans. I’m the seventh of 12 children so by the time I came along; she named me in honor of the Crescent City until she finally got to visit there later in life.”
Travis Caudle was chosen as Mardi Gras King while the new Prince and Princess are Alfonso and Helen Perez.
Observance of the ancient Carnival season begins with Epiphany (Three Kings Day) on Jan. 6 and continues until the day before Ash Wednesday.
Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday, the last chance to indulge one’s senses before launching the 40-day Lenten Season of fasting leading up to Easter. Sundays are not included in the 40 days of temperance, giving the observant weekly breaks from self-deprivation.
St. Peter Church traces its origin to Monsignor John M. Lucey, who pastored St. Joseph Catholic Church. He was deeply involved with founding Pine Bluff’s Colored Industrial Institute in 1889, which later became St. Peter Catholic School. Lucey established St. Peter Church as an African-American mission in 1894. In 1903, the congregation had grown to the point of needing to relocate from the original small church house to a newly erected structure with its landmark steeple visible from any point in the city. In a milestone appointment, St. Peter received their first African-American Catholic Priest, the Rev. John Dorsey of St. Joseph’s Society of the Sacred Heart, who served the parish from 1905 until 1907.
The 1903 vintage meeting house along with revered church icons and invaluable documents was completely destroyed in 1948 by a fire of unknown origin. The current façade soon rose to replace the church lost to the flames.