We were incredibly honored to be invited to the Gueydan Mardi Gras Ball by Lynn and Hansford Hair. It’s hard to be here in southern Louisiana without hearing about Mardi Gras, and since we thought we had to leave by February 9, it looked as though we’d be missing Mardi Gras itself – on February 24. The chance to go to a real Mardi Gras Ball was too good to be true.
One obvious question that came up early was what we could possibly wear. Formal wear (beaded dresses, shawls, and high heels) were not on our packing list when we left Delray almost two years ago (though with the fun we’ve been having we may consider what we could bring that is light and packable). Enter our fairy godmothers in the form of Lynn and Heuetta.
Heuetta invited us over one Friday night and had me try on a beautiful lavender beaded dress, and by the time I left, I had the full outfit of silver heels, silver evening bag, silver necklace and earrings, and a beautiful rhinestone ring, along with the beaded dress.
Then Lynn invited Chelsea over one Sunday after church to go through her collection of dresses. While I stayed home to write, Chelsea spent an hour trying on dresses, looking for a good fit for both me and for herself. She came home with no fewer than five dresses as possible choices, along with heels and shawls.
We had a great time trying them on. Since we’ve both gained weight here (too much good Cajun food), I opted for a slenderizing and stretchy soft black dress, with black heels and a black shawl. Chelsea chose a gorgeous teal and yellow beaded dress, and used Heuetta’s silver jewelry and evening bag. We felt like Cinderella going to the ball!
The ball itself was absolutely wonderful. It was well worth going just to see the dresses! It’s the only event each year here in Gueydan that is a formal event, and the attendees go all out. Women were in full-length gowns, many of them elaborately beaded, and all of them looking like designer dresses. Men were in full dress suits, and a big percentage wore tuxedoes.
One of our favorite moments of the evening was when Sean Gayle looked us over head to toe, asked to see our shoes (we were wearing heels), and said, “Okay, what I want to know is, just how do you care for formal wear in the bicycle trailers?”
The doors opened at six, but in order to get good seats for the show, we arrived at 5:30 and chatted while waiting. The bar was open immediately after the doors opened, and after we got our seats, we mingled with the crowd, saying hi to those we knew and meeting others. Hansford was awesome about introducing us, and when we felt lonely, we sought out Lynn, who always made us laugh.
Mardi Gras krewes are social organizations that grew from private social clubs with very restrictive memberships – i.e. by invitation only. The ranking structure is based on the structure of royalty – king, queen, dukes, counts, captains, etc.
The krewes are the “masking and parading clubs” that create the floats, the balls, and other Mardi Gras events. They operate in secrecy, not releasing the names of the ranking members. With the balls, a new court is appointed each year, but isn’t announced until the court enters the ballroom at the festivities.
For the Gueydan Ball, the Krewe’s name is the Krewe de La Chambre Royale (“Krewe of the Royal Chamber”). The king and queen are called King Jean Pierre and Queen Amalie. After our two-hour party, the festivities started at 8 pm with the entrance of the court. Each year has a different theme – this year’s was “Out of This World”.
We had George and Jane Jetson, Rocket Man, Jeanie from “I Dream of Jeanie”, the Man from Mars and the Lady from Venus, the Sun Goddess, the Man in the Moon, and the Queen of the Galaxy, along with the King of the Galaxy, all in full costume, and all arriving one by one in the audience.
Once the court was in and seated, the Krewe Des Originales Les Enfants (the peasants) came through the audience, entertaining and “begging”, and passing out beads. As they left, the King asked the Queen to dance, then the rest of the court danced with their partners. After the partner’s dance, each court member then “called out” dances to members of the audience.
After the show, we had an awesome buffet meal, followed by an evening of dancing and drinking. We still can’t believe how much Cajuns love to dance, and how good they are at dancing, and this night was no exception. At one point the entire dance floor was filled with women line dancing in a big block (punctuated with a few men). Chelsea murmured in my ear “I think we missed this class! Where did they learn this?”
For our first Mardi Gras Ball it was pretty impressive, and we hope it’s not our last!