The Grove at Mardi Gras

Many house and B&B's in town decorate for Mardi Gras - kind of like for Christmas, but on a slightly smaller scale. At the grove, we put tinsel around the front door in the traditional colors of Mardi Gras: Purple, which is symbolic of justice, Green, a symbol of faith, and Gold, which represents power. These colors have been associated with Mardi Gras celebrations since the 1870's, when the Grand Duke Alexis Romanoff of Russia visited New Orleans. During his visit there, he was given the honor of selecting the official Mardi Gras colors by the Krewe of Rex, and he chose those three, which were also the colors of the House of Romanoff.

Inside, we used Mardi Gras masks as part of our decorations. The practice traces its origins back to pagan Rome, where every February brought a feast which lasted several days. Revelers would indulge in the celebration by wearing masks, dressing up in wild costumes, and basically partying hard to honor Bacchus and Venus. All aspects of pleasure were celebrated during this Carnival. When Christianity spread into Rome, some of the old customs were woven into the new religion to placate the Romans, the Carnival season being folded into the period before Lent. In the early 1700's, French citizens of New Orleans threw elaborate balls where guests were encouraged to wear masks in the tradition of the old Roman Carnival - the more elaborate, the better!

In medieval times, a similar-type festivity to that of the present day Mardi Gras was given by monarchs and lords prior to Lent in order to ceremoniously conscript new knights into service and hold feasts in their honor. The landed gentry would also ride through the countryside rewarding peasants with coins, which is thought to be the origin of present day gifts of Mardi Gras doubloons and other trinkets - of course, the most valued of these to someone watching a parade is BEADS!

The Doo-Dah Parade

The "Mardi Gras Upriver" celebration gets started in Jefferson on the friday before Fat Tuesday, with something called the "Doo-Dah" Parade. To join this parade, just don a colorful outfit and meet at Lion's park at the appropriate hour.

The parade started forming at Lion's Park, with a croud of revelers led by the King of Mardi Gras, and a solo saxophonist (Ricky Simms). You can see some of us in our get-ups on the photo on the right.

From Lion's Park, the parade wound through the streets to Sterne Fountain, where the King of Mardi Gras stopped to give the celebration's opening proclamation before Hebe, Greek Goddess of Eternal Youth.

After the Doo-Dah Parade, the crowds poured into the streets of Jefferson to begin the weekend celebration. A carnival took over the downtown parking lot on Dallas Street, with rides for both kiddos and adults alike. The best thing, though, was the JUNK FOOD! Since we were at the start of the parade, we were one of the first ones to the food trailers and we were able to pig out without standing in line.

By that time we weren't loaded down with throw-beads anymore, and were able to turn our full attention to the Friday night party! One thing about Mardi Gras being in February, though, is that the weather was a little chilly. It wasn't too bad - nothing that a couple of extra tee shirts and a pair of gloves wouldn't take care of.

We heard a rumor about a new junk-food item this year: a Fried Twinkie! Of course, we were immediately on a mission to find this culinary delight. Sure enough, a booth was set up just down the street with a big banner across the front advertising them. We tried one, and it was a little like eating a hot donut. We talked to the guy behind the counter, and soon discovered that the Fried Twinkie is nature's perfect food: you can get a day's worth of calories and an entire week's worth of fat grams all in one little goodie on a stick.

Ingredients:
6 Twinkies
6 Popsicle sticks
1/2 cup powdered sugar 4 cups vegetable oil, and flour for dusting.
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp. vinegar
1 Tbsp. oil
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
Directions:

1. Chill or freeze the Twinkies for several hours (or overnight).
2. Heat 4 cups vegetable oil in deep fryer to about 375 degrees.
3. Prepare the batter by mixing together the milk, vinegar and oil. In another bowl, blend flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk wet ingredients into dry ingredients and continue mixing until smooth. Refrigerate mixture while oil heats.
4. Push the sticks into the Twinkie lengthwise, leaving about 2 inches to use as a handle. Lightly dust each Twinkie with flour and dip into the batter. Rotate Twinkie until batter covers entire cake.
5. Place carefully in hot oil. The Twinkie will float, so hold it under with a utensil to ensure even browning. It should turn golden in 3 to 4 minutes. Depending on the size of your deep fryer, you might be able to fry only one at a time (or two at the most).
6. Remove Twinkie to paper towel and let drain. Sprinkle powdered sugar all over it!

The town was hopping until the wee hours Friday night. There was a beer garden where you could get a frosty beverage, Budweiser had a bandstand set up for live music all weekend, the downtown shops were open for browsing, and of course the carnival was in full swing. For a little more structured meal, the city's restaurants were open as well, but hey, who could refuse any number of junk food items on a stick? Auntie Skinner's club was having its own Mardi Gras celebration as well, with another live band and dancing all night. The Mardi Gras had begun!

The Krewe of Hebe's Grand Parade

The main parade is kicked off at 12:45 by the Motorcycle Parade, featuring some of the baddest bikes that you'll ever see. While the bikers were getting things started, we were getting ready to head out. We were invited to bring our basset hounds along as part of the "Paws on the Bayou" entry in the parade.

"Paws on the Bayou" is the Jefferson pet parade that will be held on March 29th this year (2003). For pet lovers, this will be the event of the year! To help publicize it, we rounded up a pack of pets and the people that they own, and walked along beside a limousine golf cart. It was a blast!

The Krewe of Hebe Grand Parade finally started out with the presentation of the flags. In light of the world that we live in today, it was moving to see representatives from our armed forces flying the colors high. We got a few views from the parade itself, and then photos of some of the floats and other parade antics.

Since the theme of this year's Mardi Gras was "Broadway on the Bayou", all of the floats portrayed a Broadway musical. The "Chicago" float below left featured a live blues band, which was a treat for the crowd. The Chicago float won the Showmanship award for the parade. To make it better, the float parked on a side-street after the parade and the band wailed out some incredible music!

The "Little Shop of Horrors" float was a crowd favorite, featuring Audrey 2 the flesh-eating plant. This float captured the King's Trophy for 2003. In line with the musical, the plant has a pair of legs sticking out of its mouth!

The "Showboat" float from Jefferson's Hamburger Store (be sure to have one of their specialty burgers while you're in town) won the Queen's Trophy, and had a working paddlewheel and billowing smokestacks. The photo on the left below shows the "Phantom of the Opera" entry, which won the Mardi Gras Spirit award, and then a couple of characters from Sonic Drive-In. We have to hand it to Sonic - they participate in most every community event in Jefferson.

Toward the end of the parade, the "Hair" float rocked the town with music from the late 1960's, and like all the other floats, lots of beads, doubloons, plastic cups, and more. It was awarded the Sam Bell Memorial Trophy for one of the best entries in the parade. The parade concluded with the Jefferson Volunteer Fire Department, whose members were launching all kinds of goodies, including tee shirts, from the top of their ladder truck. Those brave souls will be the ones responding if we ever have an emergency at The Grove, so we clapped loudly as they passed by.

When it was all over, we had a couple of commerative plastic cups, a pocket full of doubloons, and many strings of beads around our necks. It was a great parade, and we thoroughly loved participating in it!

Mardi Gras Upriver!

The Mardi Gras celebration goes from Friday night to Sunday afternoon, and the rest of the photos are things that we snapped over the course of the weekend. It's a family-friendly party - there are many things for the kids to enjoy, but adults can also sip a frosty beverage and enjoy a romantic dance or two.

Music seemed to be everywhere during Mardi Gras - whether from the Budweiser Stage in the Beer Garden, from the arts & crafts boots, or from performers like these who were entertaining the revelers. This band was part of the "Chicago" float in the parade - they just parke and kept playing!

We'd mentioned the Motorcycle Parade before, but to really appreciate these bikes you have to take an up-close look at them all. They're any biker's dream; tricked out, loud, sleek and sexy. You could literally spend an hour scoping them all out.

There are arts and crafts booths set up on several streets selling everything that you can imagine - if you need a Mardi Gras hat or an elaborate set of beads, you're in luck. Of course, we had to buy the official 2003 tee shirt from the Krewe of Hebe's booth.

On the above right photo, you'll see a couple of mounted police. Unlike some Mardi Gras celebrations around the country, Jefferson's Mardi Gras Upriver is very safe and secure. The crowds are protected by officers on foot, on horseback, even on four-wheelers. Even with the tens of thousands of people in town, there wasn't a single moment that we didn't feel safe.

You've heard us mention the beer garden and the Budweiser stage, and it's actually a very good arrangement. You can go in and order a beer, but there are officers at all four entrances to make sure that people drinking don't go out into the streets, and that minors don't wander into adult areas. It works out well for everyone.

From the above right photo, you can see that lines for the public restrooms can get long at times. Make your plans accordingly - and if you ever see a bathroom without a line, take advantage of it immediately, whether you have to go or not!

In closing, we were leaving Sunday afternoon's celebration when we noticed an officer's horse a drink from Sterne Fountain. This is a very unique fountain - it has faucets for people, horses and pets. It was the first time that we'd seen a horse taking advantage of it, though!

With Mardi Gras over, we took off our beads and mask, put our costumes in the pile to go to the cleaners, and decided to take a late afternoon nap. It was a wonderful weekend, and we knew that we only have a year to rest up for the next Mardi Gras Upriver in Jefferson!

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Mardi Gras images provided by Lara's Mardi Gras Clip Art page, and are here in accordance with their terms of use policy. This website and all other images are copyright 2003, and may not be used without prior written permission.