Travel Tips

Some reports in the national press criticized New Orleans for holding Mardi Gras 2006 at a time when the city still has not recovered from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. I disagree. When I was there, I learned that what the world thinks of as Mardi Gras is really just the touristy, Bourbon Street part of the holiday.

Uptown, where I was, Mardi Gras is an annual family celebration. It is not unusual to see three generations of a family gathered together along the parade route, with grandma and grandpa seated in lawn chairs and little kids perched on step ladders for a better view. These festivities are as much a part of their tradition as Thanksgiving dinner or a Christmas tree. For them, Mardi Gras is not random frivolity; they need the comfort of the familiar parades and parties to give them the strength to rebuild their city.

After spending a week at Hurricane Ground Zero, I was able to understand how much the people of New Orleans needed the joy of Mardi Gras in their lives. When you're facing devastation and loss every day, you need something to look forward to, or you’d simply curl up and die.

I was so excited – my first Mardi Gras parades! The newspaper said it was the first time in history that Endymion and Bacchus – two major parades – had been held consecutively. Endymion had originally been scheduled for the previous day but had been postponed because of rain.

I loved the high school marching bands and majorettes. We hooted and hollered for them as they marched past. It seemed to me as if we were applauding the future of New Orleans, because these kids are the hope of the city.

The floats were huge, with big-headed statues on the front, and white-masked krewe members tossing beads to the crowd. The masks, I thought, were a little sinister, because they covered the entire face, with only narrow slits for eyes.

Some floats had jazz bands aboard, and as night fell, the floats were outlined with lights.

I would love to ride on a float. There’s an art to throwing the beads: you have to lob them high in the air so that they fall gently. People in the crowd can then track them visually and have a better chance of catching them.

Some of the float guys were unclear on the concept – they threw them directly at people, fast, like a baseball, which made the beads difficult to catch and was sometimes a painful experience.

The mood at the parades is friendly and festive, and even strangers converse and laugh together.

Quite conveniently, you can store the beads you catch around your neck.

Actors Dan Ackroyd and Jim Belushi were co-grand marshals of the Bacchus parade.

We saw actor Michael Keaton on the lead Endymion float, looking debonair in a white suit trimmed with gold. We screamed his name, but he was focused on the opposite side of the street.

When the Admiral took his hat off at the end of the parades, a small stuffed animal fell out – one of the floats had been throwing them. Who knew that a hat could be like an extra pair of hands?