We decided that if we’d done so many Mardi Gras activities this far, we couldn’t ignore Mardi Gras itself, so we set up an outing to Lafayette with Heuetta and Peggy. Heuetta picked us up at 7:20 a.m. and we headed off.
The first thing we noticed was how quiet Gueydan was – it was quieter than Sundays! That tickled us no end…then we realized that all the surrounding communities are shut down on Mardi Gras Day. Nearly every town or community has an event of some kind, or the locals are all going to a nearby event.
Once we connected with Peggy, we took off for downtown, partly for good parking and partly to see the early costume judging. We weren’t more than a few blocks from Peggy’s home when she and Heuetta brought up King Cakes. Peggy commented that she hadn’t gotten one this year, and said something about Meche’s having the best.
Chelsea and I were completely puzzled, so when there was a short break in the conversation I leaned forward and said, “What’s a King Cake?” There was dead silence in the car. Peggy looked at me in her rear view mirror and said “Y’all don’t know what a King Cake is?” I felt a bit sheepish, but I confirmed that no, we didn’t know what a King Cake was.
Peggy made a left hand turn and then did a quick u-turn to go back to Meche’s. “Well, we’re going to get a King Cake”, she said. We pulled into the parking lot and I couldn’t believe how crowded it was – most of the stores were closed, but Meche’s was open, and there was a huge lineup of people inside getting their King Cakes. Heuetta and Peggy each picked out a cake and we lined up to pay.
Mardi Gras season officially begins on January 6 each year – the Twelfth Night of Christmas, known as the Epiphany. That’s the day that celebrates the Three Wise Men finding the infant Jesus. King Cakes celebrate this day, with a small baby doll placed in each cake as a symbol of finding Baby Jesus.
The cakes are oval and are decorated in the local carnival colors of green, yellow, and purple. (Ours was like a huge twisted glazed donut stuffed with various creams, like chocolate, flavored creams cheeses and so on.) When the cake is cut, each person looks to see who has the small baby. The person finding the baby brings the next King Cake to the next celebration.
We tucked our King Cakes safely under the seats to eat later, and headed off to see the costume judging.
The costume judging wasn’t too well attended, and there weren’t too many entries, so it wasn’t particularly interesting, but it got us into the flavor of the day. We enjoyed watching everyone, and nearly everyone had some form of “flair” for Mardi Gras, everything from shirts, to hats, masks, feather boas, and beads, in the green, gold, and purple colors of Mardi Gras. Many spectators wore costumes.
We’d let Paul Cassity know ahead of time that we’d be there, and since he lives in Lafayette, we asked if he’d join us. He caught up with us just as the first parade started.
There were three parades throughout the day – the traditional parade, followed by the black parade (keeping a tradition from the times of segregation), followed by the “independents” parade.
The first parade was amazing enough all by itself. There were many, many floats, all of them beautifully and creatively done. One of our favorite moments, though, was the section of police on motorcycles who ran their sirens and lights and did a figure-eight routine to start off the parade. They were followed by a lengthy line of marching bands and floats.
After the first parade, we grabbed a quick lunch at a nearby bar/restaurant and walked through the parade route before the next parades started. Vendors with pushcarts traversed the route selling Mardi Gras hats, feather boas, toys, exotic beads, and other touristy items.
Nearly every corner had locals’ parties, and people had clearly been setting up parties along the parade route from early in the morning. We watched the sights, and took some great photos. Be sure to check out the photo albums.
After lunch was the black parade followed by independent parade, and they were both just as wonderful as the morning, if not more so. We got the same spot we’d had in the morning, and what an experience it turned out to be.
We were right next to the Agave Mexican restaurant in downtown Lafayette, and a handful of locals climbed up on the roof to cheer on the floats. The riders on the floats saw the folks on the roof, and would make a point of throwing their goodies at the roof. Needless to say, many of those goodies didn’t hit the roof, so they’d slide down the walls right where I was standing.
The competition was fierce for the good stuff – one woman next to me would actually get into a tug of war with others over something she wanted (which was nearly everything). The beads, t-shirts, cups, etc. just kept flying, for what felt like hours. At one point I got hit hard by a huge gold necklace of beads, and my knuckles hurt for several hours.
I did, however, score a t-shirt (grabbed it only nano-seconds before my “competition”); caught a beautiful necklace of Mardi Gras faces (the classic masks); and caught one of the coveted packages of big beads.
As if all that weren’t enough, people would walk up to me and hand me piles of bead necklaces. And if I still felt like I wanted more, I just had to walk over to the wall and literally scoop up the beads that had fallen from the roof.
At first I was putting all the beads over my head, but it didn’t take long before I couldn’t move my neck, and I was afraid at one point that if I got down to get more beads, I wouldn’t get up again. I finally started putting them in plastic bags we’d brought, then the bags got too heavy to hold!
Next to me was a young Mexican man, sweet as could be, just smiling and watching the chaos, drinking a beer. He wasn’t picking up any beads, but several strands fell on him so I urged him to put them on. That’s all it took for him to get into the spirit of things. By the end of the parades he must have had twenty-five pounds of beads hanging around his neck! Check out his photo in the Mardi Gras Lafayette Parade photo album.
After hours and hours on our feet, bombarded by beads, music, noise, and people, we were thoroughly tired out. We took a few wrap-up photos, said good-bye to Paul, and headed back to Peggy’s for the King Cake.
When Heuetta finally dropped us off at home with our massive haul of goodies and a big chunk of Peggy’s King Cake, we were as content as it’s possible to be. Our first ever Mardi Gras season was over – and we’d experienced the full range of all its glory, with memories to last for years.