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| Up close and personal at Zulu |
My Mardi Gras experience definitely
measured up to all the talk about it. I went to Muses, Bacchus, Zulu, and Rex.
All of them had their own themes and were really fun and interesting. My
personal favorite has always been Zulu. It’s what seems like the cleanest of
the parades, but the people and floats are so beautiful. It is completely
different from the others with all the feathers and face paint, and of course
the fight to get a coconut. Too my luck I caught 6! When I was younger I saw
Zulu and Rex, but it was a much different experience than the one I had this
week. A few years ago when I came here
for the parades I was with my family, looking over the parades from a balcony.
Back then I can remember beads being thrown and all the children being really
competitive to get the most ones. It was just a lot less dirty and crowded than
it was for me this year.
Mardi Gras is a religious
celebration before lent, but it’s funny how we celebrate it. Obviously the soul
celebration doesn’t revolve around catching objects from floats and people
getting heavily inebriated, but from the point of view from an 18-year-old
college carnival goer its really funny. Looking around during the parade, 40-year-old
men and young adults are screaming, and physically fighting over plastic toys
being thrown into a crowd! I think Tim Burton probably finds that hilarious.
Carnival season is a time to indulge
in sin before the Lenten season begins on Ash Wednesday. During this time
people are supposed to be wearing masks (sadly I didn’t see many people doing
so). The masks purpose is done so in order to hide you while sinning. If they
cant see your face it wasn’t you! Burton embraces the concept of the mask in
all of his movies. Every villain and hero is masked by something. Batman wore a
mask to hide his true identity. The joker painted makeup across his face to
cover his scars and embrace his new self as the joker.
The whole premise around Mardi Gras
is really neat and unlike anything else in the US. If its celebrated responsibly
and with the right people and can be a really fun time!
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