Carnival begins in New Orleans
Trending
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The countdown to Mardi Gras begins Saturday in New Orleans as Carnival season kicks off with dozens of costumed revelers and a brass band set to crowd onto a streetcar for a nighttime ride down historic St. Charles Avenue. Meanwhile, a walking club in the French Quarter will march in its annual procession honoring Joan of Arc.
WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?
While it's a secular celebration, Carnival in New Orleans -- and around the world -- is strongly linked to Christian and Roman Catholic traditions. The season begins on Jan. 6, the 12th day after Christmas, and continues until Mardi Gras, known as Fat Tuesday, which is the final day of feasting, drinking and revelry before Ash Wednesday and the fasting associated with Lent.
New Orleans has the largest and best-known Carnival celebrations in the U.S., with street parties, fancy balls and parades from simple neighborhood-based walking clubs to elaborate high-tech extravaganzas with massive floats laden with flashing lights and giant animated figures.
Other Louisiana and Gulf Coast communities also celebrate. Mobile, Alabama, lays claim to the nation's oldest Mardi Gras observances.
THE PARTY BEGINS
Saturday's events include the annual streetcar ride by the Phunny Phorty Phellows, a group of masked and costumed men and women aboard a New Orleans streetcar that rumbles out of the cavernous public transit barn in the Carrollton neighborhood before rolling onto St. Charles Avenue.
Like much of New Orleans Carnival, it's a tradition that has evolved. The current Phellows first assembled in 1981, a rebirth of a satirical Carnival krewe that took to the streets in 1878 and ceased parading in 1898.
In the French Quarter, the yearly parade by the Krewe de Jeanne d' Arc marking the birthday of the French hero marches on a route that carries them past a golden statue of their namesake. This year's guests include a delegation from Orleans, France.
While the parade is cast as a tribute to Joan of Arc, participants end the parade with a ceremony marking the end of the Christmas season and the arrival of Carnival, krewe captain Antoinette Alteriis said.
A POST-COVID JOLT
FOR TOURISM
Locals embrace the traditions of Mardi Gras but the event also is a much-welcome generator of commerce in a city famous for its bars, restaurants and a tourism-dependent economy. That economy took a big hit when parades and other festivities were largely shut down in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mark Romig of tourism agency New Orleans & Co. said there has been a strong rebound.
"It's been a very dramatic return," Romig said. "We saw it steadily increase beginning in '22. This past year, '23, was amazing, we felt very good about it."