Fat Tuesday

36, Day 71 (Written Tuesday February 21) ~ There is no day quite like Fat Tuesday in New Orleans. In the weeks leading up to Fat Tuesday you hear "Happy Mardi Gras" more often than you hear "Merry Christmas" in December. Perhaps it's because not everyone celebrates Christmas, but in New Orleans, everyone celebrates Mardi Gras. It's like Chrismas, the Fourth of July, New Years Eve and your birthday all rolled up into one.
We were fortunate to have two locals to serve as tour guides for us for the days festivities, which began at 6:00 am. We had to be on St. Charles Avenue, one block West of Canal Street, by 8:30 when the first parade was scheduled to begin. There were three parades scheduled, the final three after dozens of parades for nearly a month. It all began with Zulu, followed by Rex and endging with the Krewe of Orleans, known locally as the trucks parade (because it is made up of nearly 100 eighteen wheelers filled with people throwing beads).
Zulu was the most amazing parade I've ever seen. It lasts for such a long time, nearly 2 and a half hours, was filled with dozens of marching bands from all over the country and featuring some of the most ornately decorated floats and people. We were able to watch the parade from a balcony and also from street level. If you aren't familiar with the Mardi Gras Krewes, each organization has their own parades and they throw all sorts of souvenirs bearing their names, logos and mascots. Some of the more famous Krewes will also throw a special, limited item, that everybody wants to catch. The Krewe of Muses throws hand decorated high heeled shoes (they are an all female Krewe). We were not able to get one of those unfortunately. Zulu, most of whose members dress in African tribal and warrior costumes, throw hand decorated coconuts. When their parade begins to roll, everyone in New Orleans (nearly 2 milllion people in total watching the parades), screams to the parade participants to "Throw me a coconut." We had as our goal to come home with a great souvenir, a Zulu coconut. We cought 14!!!! We had made a really clever sign to hold up and everybody loved it, including the Zulu riders. So they all tried their best to thrown us a coconut when they went by (bear in mind there are 60 floats). The people around us were stunned at how many we were able to catch. Our local hosts told us they had never heard of anyone getting anywhere near that many coconuts.
When you hear Mardi Gras you probably have a picture in your mind that just isn't reality. It was a fun, festive, family atmosphere where an entire city, all walks of life, ages, races, social classes, stopped for a few hours to celebrate being alive. We had as much fun as we ever have. Perhaps you are thinking that we are nuts, and you'd be right.....coconuts!