NEW ORLEANS (AP) – A slim Carnival season begins on Wednesday after the coronavirus pandemic put an end to the proms and street parades that attract thousands of people to the city each year.
The Mardi Gras season always starts on January 6 and ends on Shrove Tuesday, which this year falls on February 16. .
The coronavirus put an end to those great events. But that didn’t stop New Orleans, notorious creators, from coming up with socially distant ways of celebrating.
The Krewe by Jeanne d’Arc is a club that pays an annual tribute to the fallen French hero with a parade through the French Quarter at the official start of the carnival season. This year, krewe is hosting a “Tableaux de Jeanne d’Arc”, where spectators will drive past various “tableaux” – a French term for “vivid images” – which will include costumed party stations fighting like knights, sharpening their swords and celebrating at a grand fireplace with a fried pork in the background.
“Life as usual is gone, so we had to look for different ways to do things this year,” said Antoinette de Alteriis, one of the club’s captains.
Phunny Phorty Phellows, a group that usually gathers on January 6 to mark the beginning of the season with a costume party on a tram, also changes their plans. Usually a lot of people gather at the tram station where they start their journey to see the group, but this year people are asked to disperse along the tram route and watch from there.
But people can still eat cake – that is, king cake. The sweet cakes, which are decorated with the official carnival colors of purple, green and gold, will be eaten only from January 6.
In Mobile, Alabama, dozens of parades, balls and other events were also canceled. The city in the Gulf of Mexico is called the birthplace of Mardi Gras, because the holidays began there a few years earlier than in New Orleans.
Coastal Alabama usually begins its observations later in January than New Orleans, which means that the current rise in coronavirus may be lighter by the time events are set to begin. But several organizations began announcing cancellations last year to protect the health of members and partygoers.
___
Associated Press journalist Stacey Plaisance contributed to the report.