Page 15 - March & April

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W hileNewOrleans’AfricanAmerican
Mardi Gras Indians mask, parade,
and perform throughout the year, with the
exception of Mardi Gras Day, the most
significant times for the tribes are Super
Sundays and St. Joseph’s night when they
don their dazzling, hand-made feather and
bead suits for public gatherings. Each year
on a Sunday (this year March 17) close to
St. Joseph’s Day (March 19) the Uptown
tribes, members of the New Orleans
Mardi Gras Indian Council, gather at A.L.
Davis Park on the corner of Washington
and LaSalle streets and parade through
Central City. The Downtown tribes,
members of the organization Tambourine
& Fan, also gather on a Sunday in March
along the banks of Bayou St. John and
parade down Orleans Avenue to the Treme
neighborhood. Food plays an important
part of the day along both routes. Vendors
sell burgers, grilled sausage, ya-ka-mein
soup and hand pies out of the backs
of trucks, and home cooks haul their
barbecue grills out to their curbs to cook
and celebrate with their neighbors and
passers-by.
The Indian parade on St. Joseph’s night is
smaller and illuminated only by streetlamps
and flashlights. Several groups step off
from the corner of Dryades and Second
streets at dusk to roam Central City in
search of other tribes. They don’t stay out
as long as they do for other gatherings and
their focus is strictly local. It’s a celebration
for the neighborhood but strangers are
welcome, too – if they can find the action.
It is unclear exactly when or why the
tradition of associating with St. Joseph’s
Day began but the practice of “masking
Indian” on the night of the feast of the
patron saint of Italy has been documented
as far back as pre-World War I. It may
very well have come about as a matter
of opportunity. New Orleans’ Catholic
Italians have long paraded the streets of
the French Quarter on that night. The
city’s Indians seem to have assumed the
same time for a celebration of their unique
culture as well.
by Jyl Benson + photo by Erika Goldring
Mardi Gras Indians
and St. Joseph’s Day