With today being Fat Tuesday, we thought there was no better time than now to share our perspectives of Mardi Gras in New Orleans.Living just 10 hours from New Orleans, we've been asked on more than one occasion if we've ever visited. When we tell them, "Yeah, we went for Mardi Gras." We usually get one of the two following reactions: "oh... Neat!" While we can see them imagine what must have happened at such a scandalous annual event or they respond with "Are you serious? What a party!" Thinking to themselves how awesome it would be to cross that off their bucket list. Mardi Gras has a reputation. It has a reputation for drinking, promiscuity and a odd form of prostitution where women are paid in beads for a little skin show. After having walked the parade route of Bourbon and Canal Street, we can tell you that this reputation is based on about one in thousand crazy college-aged coeds. Most of the streets are packed with families with children perched upon parents shoulders craning for a better view of the fantastically colored floats. With alleys packed with people gawking at the beautiful french inspired architecture, musicians playing jazz or locals just going about their business there just wasn't room for the public orgies we expected. If there was a lot of sleaziness, it happens behind closed doors at private, expensive events that people paid to attend. During the weekend leading up to Fat Tuesday, there are kid-friendly events all over the city and parades, that run down the main drag of Canal Street, filed with marching bands, paid entertainers, and beautifully colored floats decorated by local companies and organizations. People tend to wear masks in keeping with the traditions of Mardi Gras rooted back in the 1600s and it's incredible to be part of a celebration that generations have enjoyed. The city of New Orleans continues the French tradition of Fat Tuesday by eating rich, fatty food the day before lent begins, in the form of king cakes, Po-boys or Gumbo, and putting New Orleans' lax policy of open adult beverages to good use. Society however, has created this cartoon stereotype that attending Mardi Gras is essentially going to a strip club in the streets. To be honest, we really had no idea what Mardi Gras would be like before we got to the city. Beads were purchased in Austin before our drive to Louisiana because we wanted to look like we belonged all while keeping even our outermost layers on. Little did we know that media had hyped up the event of Mardi Gras so much that once we were there, we realized it was just a big city-wide block party. Locals and tourists alike were drinking, eating, and dancing. People on balconies were throwing beads to anyone down below and very rarely were girls flashing people in the middle of the streets. Yes, the flashing did happen, but the images we play in our head when we think of wild Mardi Gras in New Orleans is completely over-exaggerated. To be blunt, we have witnessed more topless girls in Austin down on dirty 6th than we saw in NoLa! We could not be more glad we went and were among the people celebrating the traditions and customs of Fat Tuesday. It opened our eyes to what Mardi Gras was about instead of what media makes it out to be. The one regret we have was not ordering beignets at every pastry shop we walked past. Until Next Time, C + D
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1/9/2023 11:16:16 am
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