The feast days of St. Patrick and St. Joseph, falling as close together as they do allow for something of a mini-Carnival weekend in New Orleans.. kind of a halfway respit from the ahem lenten self-discipline I'm sure we're all practicing.
There are several Mardi Gras style parades during the two or three days nearest the weekend celebrating the city's considerable Irish and Italian heritage. For the uninitiated, New Orleans was a major port of entry for these immigrant groups during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The history of these groups in New Orleans is little known outside of the city. In fact there are innumerable Italian, Irish (and German) family names in the metro phone book. This heritage is thought largely responsible for the distinctive Y'at accent evident in much of the area.
At the turn of the century, the French Quarter was almost an exclusively Sicilian enclave. Italian families there gave rise to such New Orleans icons as the muffuletta sandwich and Angelo Brocato's bakery and ice cream shop (recently reopened in its flooded Mid-City location). Traditional New Orleans neighborhood restaurants such as Liuzza's or Frankie and Johnny's often feature Italian staples like eggplant parmesan or stuffed artichoke alongside the fried shrimp or gumbo on their menus. During St. Joseph's Day weekend, many St. Joseph's altars are on display throughout town and the surrounding parishes.
The Irish have played a similarly significant role in the city's development. Irish immigrants provided the more-expendable-than-slave labor that dug the New Basin Canal during the 1830s. A concentration of Irish settled the Uptown neighborhood still known as the Irish Channel where my father's (mostly German) family settled in the early 20th Century. The French Quarter, and many New Orleans neighborhoods feature numerous "Irish Pubs" including Parasol's (host of a popular annual St. Pat's block party) Finn McCool's, The Kerry, Ryan's, and.. of course.. Fahy's. (really that last one is not worth clicking on.. heh)
The Sunday nearest the feast of St. Joseph ("Super Sunday") is also a major gathering occasion for New Orleans's unique Mardi Gras Indian gangs. If you are reading this from outside of New Orleans and have not been introduced to this tradition, take a minute or two to read the Wikipedia entry and related links to familiarize yourself with it. Few things are as demonstrative of the remarkable cultural exceptionalism of New Orleans as this century-old street music and folk art experience. Editor B, himself a transplant to New Orleans, makes the following related comment.
When I moved to New Orleans, I noticed that there were McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chickens, and I thought to myself, this place is as homogenized as the rest of the country (and much of the planet). The culture here isn’t so unique and different, I said to myself.
Then some friends took me to see the Indians come out at Bayou St. John on Super Sunday, and I realized I was wrong. This was my “New Orleans moment,” if you will, the point at which I realized that New Orleans does retain unique cultural traditions. To a white boy from the suburban Midwest, these “unique cultural traditions” are strange and freaky and weird and otherworldly and wonderful. They are what makes this city worth fighting for.
Just like during Carnival season, my apartment is perfectly situated for someone who wants to see the main events of this weekend.. and who doesn't mind a little walking/biking. The Irish Channel St. Patrick's day parade passed within a block of my door. The Super Sunday events happen as close as six blocks away... but I ended up following them for most of their two or three mile route. Of course there are photos. (As always, click to enlarge the images)
St. Pat's parades typically feature a number of marching clubs full of tuxedoed drunken sods handing out beads and flowers to the lady spectators.. in exchange for a little attention.
And.. here comes one such character now. Dad finagled (Irish sounding word) his way into this year's procession somehow. I'm not exactly proud of this.
Bagpipes.. of course there are bagpipes.
Like I said, the parade itself is much like a Mardi Gras parade with the obligatory beads and floats and such. Riders in the St. Pat's parades also throw produce items to the crowd including cabbages, potatoes, carrots, onions.. the makings of a vegetable stew basically. Above we can see a rider on the left of this photo tossing a cabbage to the folks below.
It's not a parade without the infamous Pink Thing.
Caught up with the Single Men's Club somewhere on Dryades street and followed their second line down to Phillip... I think. They had Rebirth with them. Here are some shots:
Caught the Indians on Simon Bolivar and followed them over to MLK, up to Galvez, and back to Washington Ave. The parade finished at Taylor Park. I always feel too weird to get up in these guys' faces with my camera so most of my pictures are of the rear ends of the rest of the paparazzi... but I did get a few decent ones.
Here's what I mean about not getting too close with the camera. I'm trying not to be this douchebag on the bike.
Some tribes come along with some unusual characters like this guy who called himself "Moss Man"
Or this bone man
Obviously, these neighborhoods like much of the New Orleans that is largely invisible to tourists are nowhere near recovery from the Federal Flood. The back streets near Galvez were even worse. Below, this house on Washington still features its tell tale floodline.
Meanwhile, those of us who are able to be here in New Orleans are doing our best to be New Orleanians... hoping that maybe someone will be here doing the same when we are gone.
If you haven't had quite enough.. there are additional Super Sunday photos available here from the Morrises.
Also: Even more here from Hammhawk including bunches more photos.
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