Last year instead of parades and crowds, we celebrated with a mid-morning visit to a Mardi Gras exhibit of elaborate costumes and masks at our town’s cultural center.
The masking Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans create colorful, intricately decorated costumes each year.
Their creations are part of a tradition that pays homage to the south Louisiana native Americans who helped “Maroons,” most of West African descent, who were escapees from enslavement on plantations.
The masking Indian tradition has been maintained in the New Orleans African American community since the 1800s.
Design and construction begins about a year or more before Mardi Gras. The finished items, from head to toe, are heavy with intricate beadwork and other embellishments.
The design, construction and parading in the flamboyant works of art portray "liberation, self-determination and freedom of expression," according to the exhibit displays.
Let the good times roll!
More on the tradition and history of Mardi Gras Indians here.
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