In Louisiana, there is another Mardi Gras, a wilder, more visceral Mardi Gras far from the streets of New Orleans, in Cajun country. They celebrate a Mardi Gras little changed from those celebrated by their French peasant ancestors in medieval times.
To the ever-present strain of music, the people of Acadiana keep their unique culture alive. The Acadiana region covers 22 parishes full of bayous, rice paddies and sugarcane fields in southwest Louisiana with the beating heart of Acadiana and its largest city of Lafayette, Louisiana. And in that heart there remains the French language, a love of life and a longing, a longing for the lost land of Acadie, modern Nova Scotia, from which the Acadians were forcibly removed in 1763, following the French defeat in the seven years war.
Forced to settle where no one else wanted to, amongst the mosquitoes and swamps, their ancestors along with a mix of Native Americans and other cultures created the distinct culture, the Cajun culture. And alongside the Cajuns, the Creoles: Black French-speaking descendants of freed slaves and other people of color.
For the days and weeks before Mardi Gras, families and communities come together to celebrate with music, food and dancing. Far from the grand balls and black ties of New Orleans, the Cajun fais do-do, as these parties are called, are small gatherings in backyards and fields among friends. The Cajun music of the Acadians and the zydeco music of the Creoles rings out as ever-present at these celebrations as the iconic black castiron gumbo pot. In Cajun and Creole's Mardi Gras, gone are the floats and in their place is the Courir de Mardi Gras, or the Mardi Gras run for the Cajuns and the trail ride among the Creoles.
In the Cajun tradition, the Courir de Mardi Gras features homemade costumes. These costumes are distinctive and ancient, designed by the Cajun's ancestors in medieval France to mock the fancy clothes of their aristocratic betters and the cardinals of the Catholic Church and princes of the realm. It is these medieval-inspired costumes that give Cajun Mardi Gras its otherworldly look. Once dressed, the run begins.
The run is a wild rolling party in search of the ingredients for a gumbo. As the run progresses, each home they visit provides food, drinks or other donations in return for a show or spectacle to earn the ingredients. Often that donation is a chicken which the revelers must catch bare-handed amongst the mud and ditches.
In Cajun Mardi Gras, participants don't watch the spectacle, the participants are the spectacle, the Mardi Gras. Of the event, celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain said, "House to house they will go, bringing mirth, mockery and mayhem."
To be sure, Cajun Mardi Gras is as it has always been: a moment for hard-working people to let loose and live life, to celebrate with friends and family, to eat, to drink and to remember what it is to be an Acadian.