your first thought when looking at these pictures is probably, hey, mardi gras! that looks fun.
but if you're like me, your second thought is hey, there are some weird KKK undertones to all of this.
well, yes. there totally are. included in these parades are lots of masked men, often on horseback, and actual burning crosses. they're actually called flambeaux, and these torchbearers are guys with open flames and propane tanks strapped to their backs, who light the way for the night parades and/or make everyone watching them feel uncomfortably sweaty. they look like this and are present in every parade (serious danger with a side of racist undertones!). and don't even get me started on the parade i went to last night, where the theme was "sailing the seven seas," which was basically an excuse to perpetuate racist stereotypes / practice cultural appropriation on every corner of the globe. i'm not even insulted by this stuff at this point-- i'm just gathering it for future (hypothetical) sociological studies. it's just the south, y'all.
ok, so anyway. what else. today i woke up to pouring, tourrential rain and thunder, and some of the early parades were cancelled. i went on a run because i just couldn't take it one more day without putting on my running shoes. everyone at my house told me i was crazy-- not because of the rain, but because no one works out, eats a vegetable, recycles (etc) during mardi gras. it's heresy. while i was out running, an old man sitting along the parade route yelled, "you're doing mardi gras wrong!" so that pretty much sums that up.
then we went to an oyster bbq (evidence above), which was delicious, and went to some more parades. i got clocked pretty hard by some beads (yes, that's really a thing, i've seen people chip teeth & get black eyes!) and we headed home early.
tomorrow, of course, is actual mardi gras. tonight's the night that a lot of people go to see music & go to house parties & stay up all night. clearly, that's not really my speed... as i'm in bed drinking decaf green tea. just too tired for the mardi. tomorrow is full of parades so we're getting up early to catch a few, eat beignets, go see les mis, and then make our resolutions for the next forty days.
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