Happy Mardi Gras!

Forum members have asked what happens during the long Mardi Gras season, which begins on January 6 and runs through Mardi Gras Day, which this year is tomorrow. Here is a list of the parades in the metropolitan area of New Orleans. To most parades, add a brunch or banquet and a formal ball or King & Queen’s party. (Last night was the Endymion Ball, with music by Diana Ross)

Mardi Gras Parades | Mardi Gras New Orleans

Each Mardi Gras Parade has a unique history and theme.

www.mardigrasneworleans.com

Today, called Lundi Gras, features parades tonight but also all day entertainment by the river.

(Notice the Mardi Gras beads on the US Coast Guard patrol boat’s gun - -)

Those ARE big girls! Not the normal Social X-rays of Buenos Aires, to borrow Tom Wolfe’s expression from Bonfire of the Vanities -

Here are a few of the ‘big girls’ we saw last night at New Orleans’ Orpheus parade.

Today the streets are (finally!) empty.

Yesterday:

Want to see more photos?

Mardi Gras in New Orleans: See all our photos of the costumes, parades and revelry

What a Mardi Gras! Hope you lived your best life on a gloriously sunny Mardi Gras Day in New Orleans.

www.nola.com

Happy Mardi Gras, everybody!

Scenes from here (opens with AdBlock turned off):

Mardi Gras live updates: See scenes from Fat Tuesday revelry across New Orleans

Everywhere else, it's just Tuesday.

www.nola.com

Today, Mardi Gras Day, is the culmination of the Mardi Gras season. The final parades will end this afternoon. This morning, historical groups like the Mardi Gras Indians, the Skeletons, and the Baby Dolls have been out. All day today, costumed groups like the Societe de Sainte Anne will march through the streets of the French Quarter, to the delight of all. At midnight tonight, the mounted police will clear the streets of all revelers, and by tomorrow all will return to what we call “normal.”

Quote from Splinter

Does your house look out on the parades?

Thankfully, no. For the past 35-40 years, those huge floats have not been allowed to roll through the French Quarter, whose 18th century streets are too narrow, and whose buildings feel every vibration. The big parades take place in the American Sector’s central business district. The key is to be invited to view parades from a balcony there.

Here in the French Quarter there are now only foot parades with marching bands but no large floats allowed. Today, Mardi Gras Day, we have the most action, with masked/costumed groups and Krewes like Toxic Debris and Societe de Sainte Anne. Oh, and families that costume alike - - we just passed a group of crawfish, a family of alligators, and a scary band of pirates.

There’s a lot of noise, all right. We’re so lucky to be on a quiet pedestrian street. We’re a block and a half from Bourbon Street, but hear very little of the din.

Fairhope’s Mardi Gras must have been fun! You know that it is Mobile, not New Orleans, that had the first Mardi Gras celebration in North America.