Happy Mardi Gras 2013

My Bliss, traveling and experiencing new places, new things, history and cultures. New Orleans has it all, Mardi Gras is an incredible experience and I love everything about Carnival season. I realize this post is a little late as Fast Tuesday was February the 12th, 2013, however it takes some time to recuperate from five days of celebrating Mardi Gras season in New Orleans! Instead of going into every detail of our trip and if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you’ve pretty much seen the play by-play, I thought I would share a little history of Mardi Gras, my thoughts of our time there and of course, some pictures.

I love the city of New Orleans, vibrancy of the people, the music, the artists, the history, and the food. An amazing place. We walked everywhere for five days, we ate the local fair of po-boys, debris, pecan pie at Mothers, amazing fried Chicken at Willie Mae’s Scotch House, beignets and cafe Au Lait at Cafe Du Monde, seafood at Deanies and a muffaletta at Central Grocery just to name a few. It is a place to go with the flow, wear a pink wing, a mask, a costume, be someone you’ve always wanted to be, dance in the street, jump and beg for beads, drink a hurricane, eat lots of comfort food, let loose and you will fit right in.

For those who do not know, Mardi Gras actually means Fat Tuesday and is the annual carnival celebration held in New Orleans, Louisiana. The first recorded celebration of Mardi Gras was brought to Louisiana by French settlers is 1699. It is actually a celebration to prepare for the start of the Catholic season of Lent. There are parades, king cake parties, masquerade balls, debutante balls and celebrations all over Louisiana starting on January 6th through Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. The concentration of celebrations happen two weeks leading up to Fat Tuesday (or Mardi Gras).

Carnival Krewes organize the parades, as we have come to love, they toss “throws” to the crowds; beads, doubloons, cups, and toys. The major parades go through mid-town and up-town New Orleans, St. Charles Street and Canal Street. The surrounding neighborhoods also have parades and celebrations. There are so many amazing parades, check out the schedule here. We stayed fascinated, experiencing as many as we could! The parades do not go on Bourbon Street or in the French Quarter. Contrary to popular belief, “flashing” to get beads does not occur during the parades, it is much more family friendly. The “flashing” though not as frequent, does still occur on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter to those on balconies throwing beads.

Here are a few pictures of our trip, some highlighted are the greasing of the poles. This is a ceremony to welcome Mardi Gras to the French Quarter, a few of the Zulu float pictures (The big Mardi Gras Day Parade) and a couple pictures from the local neighborhood parade in Houma, Louisana. Check out more photos at on my Facekbook page @ https://www.facebook.com/savemysunshine