Mardi Gras outside the box

             Carnival parades, balls and parties take over South Louisiana this time of year. If you’re a visitor to Lafayette wanting to experience Mardi Gras but will miss the actual dates, or perhaps want a smaller more family-friendly version, there are several events happening in the next few weeks to get you in the Mardi Gras spirit.

            Vermilionville hosts a traditional Cajun country Mardi Gras run, or Courir de Mardi Gras, on Sunday. Feb. 16, at the historic village. The Basile Mardi Gras Association will perform the courir at 11 a.m., visiting the village’s homes to beg for ingredients for a gumbo and perform Cajun Carnival traditions along the way.

Vermilionville Courir de Mardi Gras

            Other activities include a children’s capuchon (Carnival hat) workshop, a children’s courir, performances by the Pine Leaf Boys and Mardi Gras King Cake cooking demonstrations with Marie Walthers from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Vermilionville’s Cooking School.

            Admission is $5, children under 5 admitted free. For more information, visit Vermilionville.org or call (337) 233-4077. 

            Want to have a ball but don’t belong to a Carnival “Krewe” or the organization that hosts the region’s Carnival balls? The Red Hot Mardi Gras Ball is for anyone looking to attend a Carnival ball — and this event features Lafayette Mayor Joey Durel as King Cayenne I! The event will be held on Valentine’s night, Feb. 14, at The District & Event Center on Johnston Street featuring the band 5th Avenue. Tickets are $35 per person and $250 for a table, available at both locations of Schlotsky’s Deli in Lafayette. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/KreweDeBayouMardiGrasBall.

Horse Farm

            The Lafayette Farmers and Artisans Market at the Horse Farm will host “Mardi Gras at the Market” on Saturday, March 1, in honor of the Acadian Mardi Gras traditions still celebrated in south Louisiana today. The morning’s activities will include musical performances by the Cajun music group BonSoir Catin, followed by Corey Ledet and his Zydeco Band. A Creole Mardi Gras group from Lafayette will dress in traditional costume and share their group’s Carnival history and a Cajun Courir de Mardi Gras will take place at 11:30 a.m. and continue until 1:15 p.m. when the Children’s Parade approaches the nearby corner of Johnston Street and South College. (Parade parking will be available at the Horse Farm from 8 a.m.-3 p.m., weather permitting.)

            Locals and visitors are invited to dress, sing and parade with the courir revelers as they beg hosts stationed on the Horse Farm for gumbo ingredients. In keeping with the rural tradition, the prize ingredient will be a live chicken for the revelers to chase. Logan Farm’s Honey Glazed Ham will sponsor a communal gumbo sampling for all courir participants and the Children’s Museum of Acadiana will host a Mardi Gras mask decorating booth for children featuring mask templates from several Mardi Gras costume traditions. The UL-Lafayette Public History Program’s “Museum on the Move” will be parked at the Horse Farm displaying its exhibit on Louisiana woman of the 20th century. For more information, visit www.marketatthehorsefarm.com.

King Cakes vital part of Carnival season

     You’ll see them everywhere when you visit Lafayette for Mardi Gras. They’re sugary sweet, full of wonderful surprises — including a plastic baby — and are synonymous with the Carnival season.

Keller's

     King Cakes are linked to French traditions surrounding the Twelfth Night of Christmas, or Jan. 6, when the Magi visited the Christ Child with gifts. The king cake isn’t relegated to just France and Louisiana, but our tri-colored cake dates back to Louisiana’s mother country of France. Naturally, being the adventurous Louisiana, we have enhanced the dessert quite a bit.

Poupart's

     The French gateau de roi is much simpler, but with a surprise inside as well (you can find an example at Poupart’s French bakery in Lafayette). The person who receives the special bean, token or baby inside becomes the queen or king for the day. 

     In Louisiana, we begin king cake enjoyment on Jan. 6 and continue through the Carnival Season all the way to Mardi Gras, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday when this sort of decadence is supposed to stop, at least if you’re Catholic. Also, our cakes run the gamut, most commonly an oval shaped dough stuffed with fillings that’s topped with icing and sugar sprinkles in the Carnival colors of purple, green and gold. 

     Louisiana tradition has it that whoever receives the baby in their king cake must buy the next one — and so it goes for weeks on end. You can imagine that all those good intentions of losing weight after the holidays get thrown out the window during Carnival.

     Like most culinary treats, king cakes have evolved. We now have fried king cakes, king cake cupcakes, king cake bread pudding, king cake fries and king cake cocktails, to name a few. There’s even a humorous Facebook page titled King Cake Baby. 

     To see what Lafayette has to offer, visit The King Caker web site, which reviews king cake establishments. To read last year’s blog on king cakes with references to local king cake makers, visit the King Cake blog 2013.

Carnival Fun in Cajun/Creole Country

    And you thought the holidays were over? In Lafayette and surrounding areas, the fun keeps on going.
    Jan. 6 begins the Carnival season in Cajun and Creole Country, the 12th Night of Christmas, or Epiphany, when the Three Wise Men brought gifts to the baby Jesus. The season of Carnival continues until Mardi Gras, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which this year is Feb. 12.
    In a sense, it’s a religious holiday, created in Europe and continued in Catholic South Louisiana.
    “The Catholic Church licensed Carnival, which means ‘farewell to flesh,’ as a period of feasting before the fasting of Lent,” writes Arthur Hardy in his annual “Mardi Gras Guide.” “The Church also established the set date for the start of the Carnival season — Jan. 6, the Feast of the Epiphany — and the fluctuating date of Mardi Gras.”

    We celebrate the Epiphany by enjoying King Cakes with tiny babies inside — the person who gets the baby in their piece must host the next king cake and so it goes until Mardi Gras day! Carnival organizations called krewes host balls during the Carnival season with royalty and revelry, then parade through the streets throwing beads and trinkets. There’s even a krewe for canines, the Krewe des Chiens Parade for Dogs!
    Unique to Cajun and Creole Country is the ancient Carnival tradition of courirs, where costumed men and women on horseback travel the countryside to beg residents for ingredients to a gumbo, usually with a musical band and onlookers following behind. This tradition dates back to medieval France, including the costumes that mimic the educated and those in power. Once the courir arrives in town, a communal gumbo is cooked and enjoyed and usually there is lots of great music and dancing.
    Carnival and Mardi Gras in Lafayette is more appropriate for families, a safer and more relaxed version of the revelry found in New Orleans. Lafayette also offers Le Festival de Mardi Gras à Lafayette with rides and live music that occurs Feb. 8-12 at Cajun Field. Parking for RVs is available here as well and the parades roll right through the festival!
    For a complete schedule of activities, parade route map and answers to every question you might have about Carnival and Mardi Gras in Cajun and Creole Country, visit LafayetteTravel.com.