As you know, last Tuesday was Shrove Tuesday – or Mardi Gras. And no city does Mardi Gras better than New Orleans. But …
NEW ORLEANS’ YARDI GRAS HOUSES
This year has been unlike any other. A tremendous amount of setback, disappointment, and loss consumed the vast majority of our days. In spite of it all, New Orleanians did what New Orleanians always do – found a reason to celebrate.
When the news broke that Mardi Gras parades were canceled, locals got to work. Contemplating and creating their own COVID-safe celebration now dubbed – Yardi Gras. Thanks to the efforts of the Krewe of House Floats, home and business owners linked up with local float makers and artists to recreate the same visually stunning and cleverly themed floats Mardi Gras is known for right on their front porches.
https://www.neworleans.com/blog/post/yardi-gras-houses-new-orleans/
There were literally hundreds of “Yardi Gras” decorated houses to sort through, so I might well have missed one you happened to see and particularly enjoyed. If so, feel free to share it in the Comments.
I’ll begin with ones that had an identifiable Theme to it.
This is a dinosaur from Jurassic Park at the famous “Wedding Cake” house.
In a salute (I guess) to infamous attorney Sidney Powell, here is Release the Kraken house.
What’s not to like about this frog from Down on the Bayou house?
Covers of Dr. Seuss Books cover this house.
Here’s the Jester/Joker in his Harlequin-like outfit.
You can almost smell the Beignets from this Café du Monde house.
This house celebrates the fine art of Creole Cuisine.
Blacklights were creatively used for the Shroom house.
Everybody loves a Circus.
Look at the gold arms reaching out at the bottom – you can almost hear them yelling “Toss Me Some Beads!”
In honor of Prince, the Purple Rain house.
Celebrating New Orleans’ wonderful history of jazz, the Silhouette house.
And some New Orleanian must have read TC’s Blog and decided to honor JD with the Nine Muses.
In the Oaks section of NOLa they had traditional-style floats that were stationary, and people could drive by to view them.
These “Yardi Gras” houses had no theme that I could discern, but I liked them.
Hopefully New Orleans will be back in full-swing for Mardi Gras next year!
9 Responses to “Friday Fun: COVID Forces Mardi Gras to Morph Into “Yardi Gras””
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These are all delightful! Yes, Mardi Gras (Carnival, whatever) is hundreds – more than a thousand – years old, and it is irrepressible, because the people who celebrate it are irrepressible. If something like disaster or a pandemic intervenes, it (like love) will find a way.
I would have loved to retire the Furies (or at least give them a sabbatical) and mobilize the Muwses by now, but Ididn’t really expect to be able to/. Some things take a while. But I have not given up hope.
Such creativity when pandemics strike and a famous tradition is banned from taking place. I haven’t heard of such imaginative adaptations of houses in The Netherlands, Belgium and most of all Germany when most of their Carnaval floats were cancelled or restricted. Of course, European houses in cities don’t lend themselves to it, so they had to go virtual.
Thanks for a most enjoyable overview of Yardi Grass, Nameless. So good to see that people’s spirit and creativity always triumph in dire circumstances.
Neat, Nameless! 🛌 time.
Nothing like a crisis to make people get creative. So, how are they handling the traditional throwing of beads – and showing of t**s?
Whenever I see something like this…I’m delighted to remember how people can turn something dreadful (a pandemic, just for example) into an opportunity for creativity, with and general silliness! THANKS!
Wow…love looking at these fun and very creative homes. Neat the way these home owners made the best of celebrating Mardi Gras, since they weren’t able to have any parades or parties due to the pandemic.
Thanks Nameless
Thanks, Nameless. We visit our son in Bay St Louis, Ms every year at Mardis Gras time and love going to New Orleans for the parades. The people in BSL decorated their houses this year too.
Post Script: Due to Covid, we stayed home this year.
Thanks Nameless–some vibrant joy amidst all the other kinds of emotions–how therapeutic they must of found their efforts. And bless you for sharing their creations with us to lighten our days, too.