Courir de Mardi Gras is the holiday like you’ve never seen it before.
My introduction to Cajun Mardi Gras start in a drone park just out of doors of Lafayette , Louisiana on the daytime before Fat Tuesday , where I spent the dawn watching a human being clean a pig ’s stomach with Dawn dish soap and a small pink brush like you ’d find at a nail beauty shop .
Alongside all the needed merriment and shenanigan that comes withMardi Gras , residential area is the cornerstone of the holiday for people in the Acadian region of Louisiana , about two hour from the celebration ’s iconic epicenter in New Orleans . syndicate get together for large , multi - generational feasts before participating in the Courir de Mardi Gras , or run of Mardi Gras , on Fat Tuesday , when locals ring together to chase down chickens and revel in arrant , unadulterated fun . Yes , it ’s the last opportunity to misdemean before Lent — and Cajuns take full advantage — but these jubilation are also about carry on a civilisation that ’s long been sideline and wreak people together for traditions that are clearly their own .
In the 22 parish that make up Cajun Country , locals gather on the Monday before Mardi Gras , know as Lundi Gras , for fuzz roasts like theparty I attended in Eunice . These traditional boucheries begin out of necessary as a manner to last the winter by preparing large - scale cut of meat to dole out to the residential district , but today these minuscule gatherings are all about keeping this small , rigorous - knit community together .
Photo courtesy of Explore Louisiana
As the pig roast on a spit outside , a six - piece lot is in the barn playing accordions and scratching washboards to make zydeco music that ’ll get people on the dancefloor . Under the b ’s chicken - shaped disco ball , beer is menstruate and kids are munch on crispy bites of cracklin ’ . A biz of chicken shit bingo is about to start up outside . It ’s not even 10 am yet , but the company will roll on until well retiring midnight — and the main upshot , the Courir de Mardi Gras , will start on Fat Tuesday .
The Cajun the great unwashed , who were push out of French Canada and forced due south to settle in the Louisiana swamplands , brought their classifiable Mardi Gras traditions with them to Louisiana in the 18th century , but the customs duty particular date back to medieval France . Poor townspeople who were not invite to more luxurious parties would celebrate Fat Tuesday by running from house to house , asking for ingredients to make a tumid communal repast and spread before the earnest catamenia of Lent . Not wanting to be seen begging for food or taking handouts , they ’d let the cat out of the bag songs and dance at each stop during the foot race so they could view the food for thought donations payment for their performance .
distinctive attire for the day includes clothing report in fringed , hodgepodge framework , cone - regulate hats call off capuchons , and wire brass masks . The costume were originally intended to both poke fun at the rich and hold in the mask wearer ’s identity while they involve for food and engaged in drunken revel around town .
Photo courtesy of Explore Louisiana
Costumed player amass as the sun is coming up and hop on horse cavalry , flatbed dawdler , and wagons to be the group leader , called a capitaine , on horseback . The band then stops at various farms and house in town , but these days , the parades are typically symbolic and participants may sing and dance along the direction , but they are n’t asking for ingredients to make a large dish like gumbo .
That is , until the terminal stop . The courier , or run , concludes when the group must pander a Gallus gallus , and it ’s the most iconic part of the Courir de Mardi Gras solemnization . Fueled by uptempo fiddle music and , yes , plenty of beer , the participants run for through Sir Tim Rice Mick , waterlogged plowland , and neighbors ’ one thousand trying to catch a chicken , push and shoving their former comrades out of the fashion in the appendage .
In an episode ofParts Unknown , Anthony Bourdain described it best : “ [ The run ] is kind of like thaumaturgy or treating if your Halloween confect move at high f number and all the other fast one or negotiant were drunk , competing for the same Arachis hypogaea butter cup as if it were the last Arachis hypogaea butter cup on Earth and they did n’t care if they kill you to get it . ”
Photo courtesy of Explore Louisiana
For tenner this strident tradition was rigorously for local men and no women or tourists were allowed . But as many Cajuns work out to preserve their culture and pass it on to future generations , official cityeventsand mathematical group likeFaquetiguehave started host more inclusive Courir de Mardi Gras celebration where registration is overt to all .
finally the colorful forward motion — with costume participant dangling off hand truck beds , holding squawking chickens by their substructure , and crushing more than a few can of beer — will make its way back to the master street for a full of life ( and more crime syndicate - friendly ) parade . It may be a far cry from the glittery nimiety that set Mardi Gras in New Orleans , but this is Cajun Mardi Gras and it ’s the way the holiday has been lionise for more than a 100 .
