Local artists and businesses bring the Mardi Gras spirit to downtown Houma
This time of any other year, the streets of downtown Houma are filled with parades, marching bands and other revelry.
This year it is much quieter, as the Carnival season has been a casualty of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but local artists and businesses have come together to bring a little bit of Mardi Gras cheer to downtown Houma.
While parades will not roll for Mardi Gras, what would ordinarily be part of the parade route will now host Artsy Gras, sponsored by the Bayou Regional Arts Council.
Masked Observer strolls among marauders and Midtowners
Updated Feb 13, 2021;
Posted Feb 05, 2021
A house on Demouy Avenue in Midtown Mobile is seen during a recent Mardi Gras event featuring the Blow House Brass Band.
Facebook Share
Editor’s note:
The Press-Register holds exclusive global rights to reportage of the Masked Observer, a mysterious denizen of the leisure class who covers the local
“Every day takes figuring out all over again how to live.”
When Dark Hallway said it from the shroud of downtown Mobile’s uncomfortable silence, it struck the Observer as a fittingly austere mantra on what should have been a cacophonous Carnival eve. Yet the glint in the surly bodyguard’s eye belied the standard lament that’s become so commonplace during this year’s truncated Mardi Gras celebration.
Mobile s immobile Mardi Gras Print this article
Not even a pandemic can contain the whimsically celebratory spirit of Mardi Gras.
In Mobile, Alabama, where Mardi Gras in North America was born, and in New Orleans and nearby Louisiana communities where it mushroomed into a world-renowned extravaganza, the corona-cancellation of parades and masquerade balls has spawned a new iteration of Carnival.
Instead of Mardi Gras, it’s Yardi Gras. Instead of floats on wheels, there now are “porch parades.”
All over scenic neighborhoods in Mobile and Louisiana, creative residents this year are festooning porches and yards with elaborate decorations, often with large, papier-mache figures of the sort that ordinarily would adorn floats. Thus, even though masses of people can’t gather to watch parades to roll by, at least anyone with a yen for Carnival can drive through town at their own leisure in the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras and smile at the colorful displays.
The “Horton Hears a Who Dat” house.
Parades are canceled this year, but have you no fear. Freret held a vote on a theme for house floats. They picked a theme based on Seuss, let creativity loose, and let everyone know: The theme’s “Oh, the Places You
Can’t Go!”
The Freret neighborhood has become a colorful storybook as it takes on a Seussian theme for Yardi Gras, a safe alternative to Mardi Gras parades where residents decorate their own houses as floats. Imagination abounds in houses decorated in the spirit of beloved children’s books.
Max Trombly
Liz Cooke and her husband Drew pose in front of their Yardi Gras house.
By Guy Busby
DAPHNE – While parades won’t be on the streets of the Eastern Shore this Carnival season, some residents and businesses are still working to let the good times roll in preparation for Mardi Gras.
Decorations are springing up along the streets even if some more traditional celebrations are being canceled due to COVID-19.
One event on the Eastern Shore is Yardi Gras. Shawn Mitchell said, as in other areas, the idea is that Carnival isn’t going to be called off even if people can’t gather for parades and balls.
“I’d seen the house floats in New Orleans and then the porch parade in Mobile and I thought, gosh, I hope someone does that over here,’ and nothing was happening so I thought maybe that’s me,” Mitchell said. “So, I just started the Facebook page and it kind of took off from there.”