Category Archives: holidays

by

Joyeux Anniversaire, Jeanne d’Arc! (including January 6 parade details)

Announcing our 2015 Court
Patrick Van Hoorebeek, Emma Martello & Simone Bruni Crouere
The Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc selects three nonmember community leaders each year to portray three featured characters in our parade: a young Maid Joan, a King Charles VII, and a Queen Yolande.

Following in the footsteps of Orleans, France, where they select a young woman to lead their annual parade May 8 in honor of both V-Day and Joan’s lifting of the siege of Orleans, we hold a contest to select one young woman age 16-19 (the ages of Joan’s most notable feats) who best represents what Joan embodied: loyalty and love of place, dedication to community, and courage, and is studying French. Our 2015 Maid is Emma Martello of the McGehee School. The eldest of eight siblings, Emma is a student ambassador, peer support leader and active in charity work, such as the Crafts for a Cause club she founded herself.

Our 2015 Queen is Simone Bruni Crouere, founder and owner of Demo Diva Demolition Company. Women selected to portray Queen Yolande, who funded Joan’s army that ultimately made the King’s crowning a reality, are women who have demonstrated significant support for young women in the community, have business savvy and most importantly, like Queen Yolande, work strategically “behind the scenes” to uplift and improve the lives of New Orleanians. With Demo Diva, Simone blazed a trail for herself in a male dominated industry, and Demo Diva’s signature pink became a symbol of post-Katrina resilience. Joan of Arc was an inspiration for Simone as she expanded Demo Diva.

Our 2015 King is Patrick Van Hoorebeek, owner and founder of Patrick’s Bar Vin in the French Quarter. New Orleans’ ties to France are still strong and each year we select a male community leader who embodies New Orleans’ French heritage to portray our King Charles VII, who is crowned by our Maid Joan in a ceremony at the end of the parade, followed by eating king cake to kick off the Carnival season. Patrick embodies New Orleans hospitality and French culture. Growing up with stories of Joan told by his French mother, Patrick said “It’s an honor to have been selected to play the role of Charles VII since the history of Joan of Arc is something so dear to my heart.” The Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc selected Patrick for his generous support of French organizations and events in New Orleans; his ambassadorship to tourists and locals alike at his French Quarter bar; and his ability to make everyone who walks into his establishment feel like royalty.

Parade Tuesday Jan. 6, 6 p.m.
Joyeux Anniversaire, Jeanne d’Arc!
Celebrating St. Joan of Arc’s birthday and Twelfth Night, this annual walking parade is a medieval-themed theatrical procession, inspired by Joan’s time in 1400s France. Joan of Arc liberated the citizens of Orleans, France, from a British siege in her first victory in 1429—resulting in her moniker “The Maid of Orleans”. Our parade honors our own unofficial patron saint, The Maid of New Orleans: the beloved golden French Quarter statue, a gift to the City of New Orleans from France in the 1950s, and our French history and heritage.
Dress in gold. Bring king cake to share. The parade typically starts on time at 6 sharp and makes 3 pauses for a bit of medieval pageantry: toasts from the Historic New Orleans Collection and Grégor Trumel, Consul General of France in New Orleans, from the Williams Research Center balcony at 400 Chartres; a sword blessing at Saint Louis Cathedral by The Very Reverend Father Philip Landry, and the crowning of the king and king cake ceremony at the end. It’s a short, family-friendly parade — quirky, whimsical and spiritual. Follow us through the French Quarter with one of Joan’s birthday candles, handed out to parade goers in honor of Joan’s 603rd birthday.

by

Southern Decadence Parade Routes

SD-Parade-Route-Friday14

SD-Parade-Route-Sunday14

2014 is the 43rd Annual Southern Decadence celebration.However, 2014 brings us the 40th annual Sunday afternoon parade, as there was no official parade in 1972, 2005 (Hurricane Katrina) and 2008 (Hurricane Gustav).

Southern Decadence Parade Routes.

by

Easter Parades 2014

historic-french-quarter-easter-parade-2014-map-08fc4eda0a4cc629
chris-owens-easter-parade-2014-map-7131615e3e0a6529

gay-easter-parade-2014-map-bf5e64c8acc46701

by

Roy Guste, FQ photographer captures Krewe de Vieux 2014

1920240_10203168534516524_208781388_n1795540_10203168561317194_132826920_n

by

When was Carnival’s golden age? Take a look around — we’re living in it | The Lens

C.W. Cannon one of my favorite columnists, talks of our current Carnival period as a golden age with more democratic and satirical characteristics than we experienced in the late 20th century, where whites-only krewes had their way and superfloats flourished which led to the demise of many of the small neighborhood parades. I’ll tell him how much I appreciate this on the downtown parade routes that I am sure to see him on over the next few weeks..

Russian literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin, in a book about folk culture influences on the great Renaissance French writer Rabelais, outlined a theory of Carnival based on ancient and medieval traditions. Centuries later, it’s remarkable to witness how the “carnivalesque” spirit he details lives on so palpably on the other side of the world. A few of the key attributes Bakhtin ascribes to Carnival are a satirical impulse of a bawdy kind that he calls “grotesque realism,” the inversion of normal prevailing social hierarchies, and mass participation.

In light of principles like these, it’s a no-brainer that the latest city ordinance supports, rather than inhibits, the ancient foundations of Carnival tradition. Even here in New Orleans, one of the prevailing social strictures upended by Carnival has been segregation in public settings. Blocking off and segregating swaths of the public space for members-only parties doesn’t jibe with the carnivalesque injunction to cast off social distinctions and rub shoulders with strangers for a limited period of time.

When was Carnival’s golden age? Take a look around — we’re living in it | The Lens.

by

All Saints Day/Feast of All Souls

With all of the hoopla now surrounding Hallowe’en, many newcomers to New Orleans may not know that today is as important or more to our culture as the ghoulish day before. All Saints Day is done in primarily Catholic places, like New Orleans, and is a day decreed by the Vatican as a catch-all day to pray to your saint of choice.
The day is honored by attending Mass and working on one’s family tomb, cleaning it and making it presentable for November 2 which is the Feast of All Souls or in some Catholic countries, the Day of the Dead. Taking time on All Saints Day is thought to have begun because most Catholic cities like New Orleans would decree the day before a holiday a day off and so people here used it to whitewash and make one’s family tomb presentable.

Today is a day to visit your nearest cemetery in New Orleans, and watch family tradition in action. Tomorrow, take a moment and remember your dead, especially those that you believe might still be in Purgatory…

The modern date of All Souls’ Day was first popularized in the early eleventh century after Abbot Odilo established it as a day for the monks of Cluny and associated monasteries to pray for the souls in purgatory. However, it was only in the Medieval period, when Europeans began to mix the two celebrations, that many traditions now associated with All Souls’ Day are first recorded.

by

Krewe of Boo tonight

Parade’s formation location: Elysian Fields and Decatur St Formation time: 5:00pm
Starting time: 6:00pm
The parade will form on Elysian Fields Avenue and North Peters Street. It will
turn right onto North Peters Street in an uptown direction on North Peters Street (against traffic against the flood wall). Upon reaching Dumaine Street the parade will continue in an uptown direction with the normal flow of traffic on Decatur to N. Peters, to Canal Street, where the parade will turn right onto Canal Street to Dauphine Street where it will u-turn to the opposite side of Canal Street to Tchoupitoulas Street where it will turn right on Tchoupitoulas Street to St. Joseph Street turn left onto St. Joseph Street to Convention Center Boulevard, and make a right turn against traffic onto Convention Center onto Henderson., and proceed to Mardi Gras World for disband.
NO PARKING ZONES:
On the river bound side of Elysian Fields Avenue between N. Peters and Royal Streets from 12:00pm, until 8:00pm.
On both sides of N. Peters Street between Esplanade Avenue and Conti Street from 4:00pm until 8:00pm.