Mardi Gras is Coming in 2013!!

Mardi Gras is coming!  Mardi Gras is coming!

We celebrate Thanksgiving in New Orleans.  We celebrate Christmas, and we celebrate the 4th of July.  Mardi Gras is not just one day.  It is a season.  It is a New Orleans state of mind.  During Lent, we remember Mardi Gras past, and we plan for Mardi Gras future.  New Orleans is more than Mardi Gras, but without Mardi Gras, you've only got a partial view of New Orleans.

Would you like to stay at a cheerful historic bed and breakfast in New Orleans for Mardi Gras season? 

The head of a fatted bull

Carnival in New Orleans starts on the Feast of the Epiphany, also known as the feast of St. Joan of Arc, January 6.  It lasts until the the midnight that rings in Ash Wednesday.  Some years there are only two months of Mardi Gras, others there are three.  This year, the Super Bowl is being played in New Orleans at the end of the Mardi Gras Season.  It is going to be a festive time, this year.

Zulu country

Most people who come to New Orleans during Mardi Gras are not big shots.  They are people who want to experience a taste of the magic New Orleans has on tap.  Many people don't realize that there is more than one way to celebrate Mardi Gras.  The holiday starts earlier than they suppose.  They don't know what they are missing.  There is something to be said about crowds along St. Charles Avenue on Mardi Gras Day, but there is much to recommend the more intimate parades that take place before then, too.  

There are krewes, and there are super-krewes.  There is a Krewe of Rex and there is a Krewe d'Etat.  They mask on different days.  

Every day in New Orleans is a parade

On the night of January 6, the Krewe of Joan of Arc parades through the French Quarter, led by Joanie on the Pony.  At about the same time, the Phunny Phorty Phellows charter a street car down St. Charles Avenue to herald in the best part of the year.

Between Epiphany and Lent, there is always something to see in New Orleans.  There is always something to see year-round, but its more true during Mardi Gras season.  Every street in the city is home to tradition, to sense of place, and to joy.

We'll leave the shutter open

Don't limit yourself to one day and one night in New Orleans.  Don't limit yourself to coming just when you know something is going on.  Believe me, I live here, something is always going on.  New Orleans is at its best when no one is watching.  Come early in the Mardi Gras season, and you will have stories and memories like nobody else.  They are the kind of memories that last a lifetime and make you a New Orleanian, wherever you are.

A votre sante.

All photos taken at Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World this past August.