Floats, costumes, masks, beads for Fat Tuesday
NEW ORLEANS — Dressed in elaborate costumes, dancing to the beat of brass bands and clamoring for beads from passing floats, thousands of people gathered in the streets of New Orleans to mark the culmination of the famous Mardi Gras celebration Tuesday.
The last day of parades rolled along St. Charles Avenue and Canal Street, float riders throwing beads to bystanders as revelers in other parts of the city like the French Quarter and the Marigny partied in the streets in elaborate costumes.
Fat Tuesday is the last day of the Carnival season before Lent, a period of penance and spiritual renewal that begins Wednesday.
“It’s fun. You see all the people. You see everybody dressed up, and you have a good time. I love New Orleans,” said Barbara Tate, who came from Maryland for the holiday.
Before sunrise Tuesday, about 100 people turned out at the Backstreet Cultural Museum to see the North Side Skull & Bone Gang come out. The gang is a longtime Mardi Gras tradition. Members wear costumes resembling skeletons with papier- mache masks covering their heads. They go through the neighborhood waking people up on Fat Tuesday.
Dabne Whitemore came to the door in her white bathrobe after hearing the gang and its drums coming from down the street: “I was laying in my bed upstairs in the back, and I heard the drums coming and I knew it was time. ... They come and wake me up every morning for 15 years.”
Riders on the floats generally wear masks and throw beads or other specially made trinkets to people along the parade route. One especially prized “throw” is the coconuts given out by members of Zulu. The coconuts have been hollowed out, and the outside hair is removed; they’re then decorated with glitter or elaborate designs. Riders in the Zulu parade also threw out small stuffed animals, specially decorated beads and hats with the words “Zulu” emblazoned in yellow.
After the parades, the street party generally moves to the French Quarter, where revelers pack Bourbon Street and the celebration gets a bit more risque. The festivities come to an end at the stroke of midnight, when a wedge of mounted police officers rides down Bourbon to clear it of revelers and declare the party over.
Despite Mardi Gras’ reputation as being a raucous, adults- only party, much of the celebration is actually familyfriendly. Families lined up early along the side of the streets or on the median — called the neutral ground in New Orleans — to get a good seat, often bringing ladders with specially designed seats on top for kids to sit in and catch beads.
Naomi Shows, from Covington, La., came to the French Quarter with her three children, their black- and- white faces painted like skeletons inspired by Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead: “It’s been a tradition here for so long. They grow up with it, and they love it.”