Category: Feasts and Festivals

As always this post is dedicated to Cecilia, my beloved Queen of Carnival.

Today is Mardi Gras, the last day of Carnival. The festivities that began on January 6th are building to a crescendo. And as always, before the deprivations of Lent are upon us, I’m inviting my faithful reader to join me at one of major Krewe parades in New Orleans.

Founded in 1882, the Krewe of Proteus is the second-oldest krewe in Carnival history and their floats still use the original chassis from the 1880s. This year was their 65th parade but we will be going back to their 18^th procession along St Charles Ave to Canal St on the penultimate night of Mardi Gras: February 18^th 1901.

The Picayune parade bulletin published Monday morning revealed that this year’s parade will tell the story of Al-Kyris the Magnificent. It comes from one of Marie Corelli‘s “spiritual Christian” novels, I believe it’s called Ardath:The Story of a Dead Soul. It’s something or other about a modern (19th century) poet, Theos Allywn, who goes into a trance and travels back thousands of years to an earlier civilization and the city of Al-Kyris. As always the fine gentlemen of Proteus do love the esoteric.

I was able to get us seats near the beginning of the route. That will give us time to go back to the Cosmopolitan Hotel before the multitude descends of the French Quarter. The parade starts as the sun is setting but the flambeaux carriers will make sure we see everything.

Proteus leads off the parade and with him ten Aides on horseback who act as parade marshals along the route.

He is followed by the banner car; notice that the title was so secret that Bror Anders Wikstrom didn’t include it in his drawing. The renowned designer created 20 floats and over a hundred costumes for the parade. The serpent is Nagaya the deity forshiped by the people of the magnificent but doomed city of Al-Kyris

As with most of Corelli’s novels there is a heady mixture of the the exotic, the mysterious, the sensual, the pagan, the spiritual, and Christian morality.

Theos meets Sha-Lum, the poet laureate, who serves as his spiritual double and guide through the luxurious gardens and palaces of Al-Kyris.

Sha-Lum takes him to the palace of the weak and indolent King Zephornam, who lives only for pleasure surrounded by a crowd of sycophants.

Theos meets the High Priestess Lysia, a figure of overwhelming mesmeric beauty and ruthless authority wielding a silver-headed serpent wand who both captivates and repels him with her seductive power, presiding over pagan ceremonies that blend eroticism, idolatry, and casual cruelty.

You may have noticed that one or two of the ballet “girls” are rather hefty of frame. The krewes are exclusively male so you may see the odd beard peeping out under a mask. In 1880 the Krew of Momus took as their theme A Dream of Fair Women which led society columnist Catherine Cole to wryly note:  … I confess my imagination was not vivid enough to fancy ‘fair women’ in the lot of gorgeously apparelled brawny men who hid their beards and moustaches behind false faces. Adieu! It was a perfect nightmare!  (Why do I think she meant to say “Mon Dieu”?)

As the prophet Kosrul predicted the city is doomed and during a New Year’s temple ceremony, an earthquake, subterranean fires, and collapsing structures annihilate the city in flames, consuming Lysia, the king, Sah-luma, and the entire civilization in divine judgment

With the destruction of Al-Kyris the land of Ardath is purified and Theos finds redemption and his dead soul is resurrected.

As always Proteus has astounded us with magical floats and I’m the ball and tableaux will be equally splendid. Fortunately we’ve been able to procure invitations to the Proteus ball and tableaux but we will have to hurry back to the hotel and change for the evening. It may take some time, you know how much difficulty I have getting my white tie just so. Quick there’s a carriage let me wave him down. Fortunately our hotel isn’t that far from the French Opera House.

We’ve come away with a few souvenirs of the the parade and a evening of tableaux and dancing. A great way to celebrate the last days of Carnival.

The costume and float images are from the exceptional Mardi Gras collection at Howard Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University and Louisiana Digital Library.   And many of the nuggets of Mardi Gras history came from two of the Mardi Gras Treasures books by the doyen of Mardi Gras designers Henri Schindler.

The word for February 17^th is
Penultimate /pĭ-nŭl′tə-mĭt/: [adjective]
^1.1 Next to the last
^1.2 Last but one.
^1.3 Of or relating to the penult or last syllable of a word.
From Latin paenultimus, from paene (“almost”) + ultimus (“last”).