Bee Travel
Mardi Gras magic
CHRISTINE HICKS- USTA Travel
Get out your jester hats, beads and doubloons. The parades have actually already begun but earnestly get into swing beginning Feb. 3. There will be 29 parades in all in the French Quarter - and many more in the slightly obscure districts the likes of Metairie and Mandeville.

Mardi Gras...what an odd holiday. We all know it's Fat Tuesday and perhaps understand its origins - the cleaning out of the refrigerator just prior to the austere season of Lent. Pancake suppers are the result. The roots of Mardi Gras burrow deeply into religious traditions of the French and Spanish and took root in New Orleans initially in the 1600s. The festivities of today bear slight resemblance to pre-Lenten balls of the 1800s, specifically in the mid-1800s, when parades debuted. Krewes (organizations) formed to structure the informal parades that had sprung up. The leap to hyper-Mardi Gras took place in the 1950s (see a thorough history at www.mardigrasunmasked.com), to become the unexclusive province of anyone willing to participate. Its reputation as an alcohol-soaked, breast-baring event is undoubtedly well-earned, if forever overblown by participants, nonparticipants and a hungry media. It is, after all, remarkable. Not every city and town have such celebrations. Still, there's only one place synonymous with Mardi Gras, only one place where all its manifestations are so well-tolerated.

I confess I have not visited New Orleans during Mardi Gras time. If I even harbored the notion, however, this might have been a year I would have chosen. The biggest beef most have with the event is the biggest reason most other people go - the crowds. Last year, the city edited its 12-day bacchanalia into eight, and crowds were, well, scarcely that. Only about half the usual number of attendees came at a time when they city could have used (but could hardly accommodate) the tourists. Indeed, Mardi Gras celebrations popped up bigger than ever in places like Mobile, Orlando, Louisville and Colorado.

Of course, you do know that the French Quarter was completely spared the utter devastation that befell so much of the city at the hands of Katrina. The choke on hotel rooms that followed has released, as people have left, resettled, or the work they came to do has been finished. The work force that was in shambles has reassembled, and that part of the city that is the French Quarter is ready.

On February 20th this year, the ceremonial petroleum jelly jar opens to grease the ceremonial balcony poles, as the traditional lineup of Zulu, Rex, Elks and Crescent City parades pumps revelers into a rowdy, doubloon and bead-slinging mass. The "king cakes" are baking, decorated outside and in, as is the custom. That bluesy beat that pervades the clubs of Bourbon Street spills out on the thoroughfares of the French Quarter, an aural reminder of the coming austeritytomorrow. If crowds were the reason you stayed away from New Orleans at Mardi Gras time, this may be your best last chance to go before the legions return, growing year upon year. Grab your mask and make your way to Bourbon Street, before it disappears again under the swelling throng.

(Christine Hicks-Usta has enjoyed more than 30 years of globe-trotting as a member of the travel industry in various capacities. Direct questions to her at Bee Group Newspapers, P.O. Box 150, Buffalo, NY 14231-0150.)