NEW ORLEANS (AP) – A muted carnival season begins Wednesday after the coronavirus pandemic put an end to the crowds of balls and street parades that draw thousands of people to the city each year.
The Mardi Gras season always starts on January 6th and ends on Fat Tuesday, which falls on February 16th this year. The season is usually marked by excessive balls and processions where costumed riders throw trinkets for the crowd of people packed along the parade routes. .
The coronavirus put an end to the big events. But that did not stop infamous creative New Orleans from coming up with socially distant ways to celebrate.
Die Krewe by Jeanne d’Arc is a club that annually pays tribute to the fallen French hero with a march through the French Quarter at the official start of the Carnival season. This year, the lobsters are hosting a “Tableaux de Jeanne d’Arc”, where spectators will ride through various “tableaux” – a French term for “live photos” – which include stations of costumed revealers struggling as knights and their sharpening swords. and feast on a large fireplace with a pig roasting in the background.
“Life as usual is over, so this year we had to look for different ways to do things,” said Antoinette de Alteriis, one of the club’s captains.
The Phunny Phorty Phellows, a group that usually meets on January 6 to mark the start of the season with a costumed party on a street car, is also changing its plans. Usually crowds of people gather at the facility where the street car begins its journey to see the group leave, but this year people are asked to spread out along the street car route and rather look from there.
But people can still eat cake – it’s king cake. The sweets, which are decorated with the official carnival colors of purple, green and gold, will only be eaten from 6 January.
In Mobile, Alabama, dozens of parades, balls and other events were also canceled. The city on the Gulf of Mexico calls itself the birthplace of Mardi Gras since celebrations began there a few years earlier than in New Orleans.
Coastal Alabama usually begins later in January as New Orleans, which means the current surge in coronavirus could subside with the onset of events. But several organizations began announcing cancellations last month to protect the health of members and revelators.
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Associated Press journalist Stacey Plaisance contributed to this report.