The February Carnival or Mardi Gras, is a celebration to witness atleast once in a lifetime. Festivities go on for over fifteen days and New Orleans gets splashed with the brightest of hues – the colors of Mardi Gras – Purple, Green and Gold.
For the history enthusiasts like myself – these three colors were selected in 1872 to honor the visiting Russian Grand Duke whose house colors were purple, green and gold (as per the Mardi Gras New Orleans website). And since then, these became the official colors.
Our Bucket list favorite, we decided to attend our first Mardi Gras celebration and there we were on a Friday – amidst the cheerful crowds – watching the riders and floats go by. People were dressed in glittering costumes, the floats were ostentatiously decorated and of course, the shimmering beads were the show-stoppers. And the parade also had one of the most interesting display of cars, bikes – and that’s the reason – I wanted my first Mardi Gras blog post to be all about these.
During our second parade of the day – ‘Krewe of Tucks’ – a complete charade of glammed-up vibrant cars went by the cheering crowd – pairs of green & yellow cars followed by the shiny orange & blue ones with bead-strings swaying with the wind. Then came along – the long line of bikes – decked in Mardi Gras colors (not to be missed) and even the riders wore vibrant hues.
One could see all kinds of wheels – a turned-around Tricycle, sparking cars, the dear-old carriages and the mighty bikes. Canal Street was flooded with these crazy parade rides and everyone enjoyed it thoroughly.
Did I say, we watched all this from a fabulous spot we got because we were there early (a Mardi Gras travel tip). And it was more perfect as we were able to click some amazing pictures while catching the falling beads.
Copyright © Vasudha Aggarwal & travel-defined.com, 2014 -15. All rights reserved.
For more information about Mardi Gras, see the website.
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Gallery of Pictures in this post (Click on thumbnail for larger image):
Traveldefined 
The New Orleans Mardi Gras is on my bucket list too. Thanks for sharing.
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Glad you liked it. The weekend before the ‘Fat Tuesday’ is usually a good time to visit – as some of the famous Krewes are lined up for parades.
Undoubtedly, its a wonderful experience.
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