Happy Mardi Gras!
OK, in the UK we don't really mark this with much more than a few pancakes, but in New Orleans Mardi Gras means weeks of parades and parties. It's a city that played an important part in the history of the Jazz Age—it's generally considered to be the birthplace of blues and jazz music, and also a town that knows how to party. During Prohibition it probably took less notice of the alcohol ban than any other city. Crack Prohibition agent Izzy Einstein used to gauge the challenge he would face policing a town by seeing how long it took him to get a drink when he arrived: in New York it took 14 minutes; in New Orleans it took 37 seconds. (When he asked his cab driver where he could get a drink, the cabbie reached back passed him a bottle.)
In the run-up to Mardi Gras New Orleanians really let rip, with a festival of masks, costumes and music. Dozens of "Krewes" spend all year putting displays together and as they parade through the city they fling trinkets, specially minted coins and strings of gold, purple and green beads from their floats into the crowd. We had those at our party, and we projected New-Orleans-set vintage movies and original footage of the city in the 1920s and 1930s.
For our event we had live music from the Candid Jug Orange Band, playing famous New Orleans tunes, which often reference Mardi Gras, and tend to have a distinctive rolling rhythm. Thanks to all who came along and contributed to such a lively atmosphere, especially those who sported the traditional Mardi Gras colours or green, gold and purple. (Those colours date back to the Rex parade of 1872, when the King of the Carnival made declaration that everywhere should be draped in those colours, though no one seems to have asked why!)
You can see photos from the event in this album on Flickr.
