Mardi Gras Parade – 2022
After all Mardi Gras parades were cancelled in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it is reassuring to see that things are back to normal in 2022. The parades rolled again through the streets of New Orleans and surrounding suburbs, as well as across cities and towns in South Louisiana. With the lavish outfits and lots of trinkets and beads to throw, these parades are alot of fun to attend. This year we attended a newer parade, hosted by the Krewe of Athena, in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans. Here is the queen of this carnival organization.
We arrived to the parade several hours early and found a spot to stand at the very beginning of the parade route where floats, riders and bands were lining up.
With this parade — as with all parades — riders wear costumes each specific to the float. In this carnival organization, all riders wore the same basic outfits — purple and green — and green wigs.
The riders just kept coming. They walked to their floats which were lined up along the boulevard.
This is the Athena Carnival Club which is named for an ancient Greek goddess. She is at the helm with her sword and shield.. This is a newer Mardi Gras organization which was formed in 2014. It appeared to be a prominently Afro-American group. It is an all-female organization, and typical of most Mardi Gras carnival organizations and krewes, it is a private one with memberships approved by the group.
According to their WEB page,
“The Krewe of Athena Carnival Club, Inc. is an all-female Mardi Gras club in the Greater New Orleans area. Spearheaded by a group of Mardi Gras veterans, Krewe of Athena was born out of the desire to create a Mardi Gras organization open to professional women from diverse backgrounds. The Krewe of Athena Carnival Club, Inc. exists to promote a sense of community through sisterhood, service, fellowship, and fun.”
A band and dancers led the parade off. This band was from a Nashville High School. They told us that they were marching in three parades over the Mardi Gras weekend.
The captain — the person who organized the krewe’s activities for the year — usually leads the parade off. Some captains ride in a limousine, others on horseback, this one rode on her own float. This captain, incidentally, is the founder of this carnival organization.
The next to come is the grand marshal. Traditionally this person leads the parade, walking and prancing with a cane and engaging with the folks along the parade route. Now this slot is usually filled by a celebrity who rides on a float. This caption for this float said that the young lady was a silver medal winner in the 2020 Olympics.
The Grace of Fellowship and Princess of Fun are two of Athena’s sisters. Here is the one of the sisters. The second sister is on the float but not visible in this photo.
This carnival organization has a Greek goddess, Athena, as it’s title. According to the carnival organization’s WEB page:
“Athena is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, just warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill. Athena was, perhaps, the wisest, most courageous, and certainly the most resourceful of the Olympian gods. Her tree is the olive, which represents peace, and the owl is her bird, which represents wisdom. Athena had three sisters commonly referred to as the Graces. They were the goddesses of joy, pleasure, grace, beauty, festivity, adornment, dance, and song.”
The organization selects prominent local citizens as royalty for each year’s events. Some krewes will have celebrity kings and queens. Here Athena’s king and two riders posted for photos prior to the parade.
Here is the king on his float. He has a consort of royal helpers on the float.
Beautiful decorative headpieces are typical of all the Mardi Gras parades. Some of these head pieces can weigh up to 70 pounds. They are tethered to the float by a hook on a pole.
The queen comes next. Her young escorts are having fun throwing beads..
Next comes the princesses — debutantes. These are young girls who are being introduced into society — a tradition which is still very much alive in the South.
Here they are ready to begin the parade route which lasts several miles..
Then come the floats with riders throwing bead, stuffed animals, trinkets, cups and everything else.
Catch something if you can.
This parade had riders throwing lots of great trinkets.
Look closely. A rider is trying to give a dog on a stick to a certain child. The more you act in a crazy manner, the better chance you have of catching prized toy.
Here are some more floats and riders.
This parade had 24 floats. Many were double-decker floats.
Dispersed between floats were riders in dune buggies. I didn’t know that this many of such vehicles existed in the New Orleans area..
And here come more bands.
And more floats.
And more bands.
And finally the parade ended. Time to pick up all the beads, cups and trinkets. What do you do with them until next year? I don’t know, but I sure picked up a nice umbrella and several stuffed animals.
Until the next parade…..see more of my photos in the gallery which accompanies this post.
References:
https://www.kreweofathena.org/about
https://www.kreweofathena.org/parade
