Mardi Gras Madness

I am exhausted, I have lost my voice, and I have a cold. Overall I’m pretty miserable, but it was so worth it.

Mardi Gras so awesome, but my favorite parade by far was Zulu. Mardi Gras Day in itself was ridiculous. Waking up after sleeping for two hours was so difficult, but fortunately we drove most of the way there, rather than walking all the way down to the intersection of Jackson and St. Charles. After we met up with friends, we stood there for a WHILE and waited for the parade to start. We coped with the cold by moving around a lot and huddling together, our neighbors elected to drink the cold away. Only in New Orleans is being plastered at 8AM socially acceptable.

I liked Zulu the best because it had a totally different atmosphere to it than any other parade. People were just acting differently. At one point the parade stopped for a while and a woman in the parade had some beads I wanted, so I just walked up and asked for them. To my surprise she said yes and struggled with them for a few minutes. When I asked if she needed help she said cheerfully, "Oh yeah baby, it's because I'm tipsy!" There was just so much more interaction between the crowd and people in the parade.

My favorite part was how crazy people were getting about the coconuts. Originally coconuts were thrown because they were much cheaper than the expensive glass beads that most other parades were handing out. It wasn't until 1940 that people began draining the juice and decorating them like they do today. People were INTENSE about getting coconuts. At one point, a little boy next to me almost got hit by a float trying to get one. For his safety, I offered to put him on my shoulders and after about 2 minutes, he had so many toys and a beloved coconut. I was getting really discouraged and then I looked up and someone was passing down a coconut! I don't really remember how I got it, but I was so excited.

It was a great first Mardi Gras. It was nothing that I expected, but all that I hoped for.