AP Features, February 1st, 2008
Special touches of Carnival 2008 around Louisiana.
OFF AND RUNNING
ON THE BAYOU
Mamou's famous Courir de Mardi Gras, or Run of Mardi Gras, dates back to before the Civil War.
The event begins the Sunday before Fat Tuesday with the early morning courir, in which a group of costumed community members ride through town on horseback in search of ingredients to bring together for a community gumbo.
The gumbo is usually cooked on Lundi Gras — the day before Mardi Gras — in downtown Mamou, where there is a big street dance.
The all-male Mamou courir remains faithful to old traditions, so there are no decorative floats and riders do not throw trinkets to onlookers.
Accompanied by a flatbed trailer carrying musicians and by other trailers transporting participants who do not have horses, the riders stop at homes in rural Evangeline Parish where they sing and dance while begging for chickens and other makings for a gumbo.
Mamou is in Evangeline Parish, northwest of Lafayette.
THE CHIPS ARE BACK
IN MID-CITY KREWE
When the Krewe of Mid-City rparades down St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans on Sunday, costumed riders will be throwing bags of Zapp's potato chips for the first time since before Hurricane Katrina.
Potato chips made their first appearance as a Carnival throw in 1991, when Mid-City introduced Zapp's in 1-ounce packages stamped with the krewe's name. The krewe didn't throw chips for two years after the storm struck on Aug. 29, 2005.
This year, the bags of chips are back, and will sport a special design to mark the krewe's 75th anniversary. Zapp's is based in Gramercy.
The Krewe of Mid-City was formed in 1933 by business owners and still bears the name of the neighborhood where it paraded for decades, starting in 1934. That year, Mid-City paraded with a half dozen floats drawn by mules, a couple of bands and horseback riders.
BACCHUS TIPS ITS HAT
TO CHAMPION TIGERS
Head coach Les Miles, senior members of Louisiana State University's national championship football team and LSU cheerleaders will ride a special float Sunday in New Orleans' Krewe of Bacchus parade.
Brennan said they'll be tossing special LSU throws.
"Bacchus is thrilled to honor our national championship team," Brennan said. "They have lifted our great state to special national prominence by their successes on the football field, and I know the immense crowd that will watch the 2008 Bacchus parade will honor the team with their applause and cherish catching the special LSU throws."
The O. Perry Walker High School band will be marching behind the LSU float and will play the LSU fight song.
Wrestler and reality television star Hulk Hogan will reign as the parade's celebrity king.
Associated Press writers Mary Foster and Stacey Plaisance contributed.
