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Mardi Gras refers to Fat Tuesday, but there is a whole season leading up to the big day. It kicks off on Twelfth Night which is on or around Joan of Arc’s birthday. A newer parade to the Mardi Gras line-up is the Joan of Arc parade started in 2008. It rolls in the French Quarter while Phunny Phorty Phellows goes across town in a streetcar.
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It is my favorite parade. If I am lucky, it isn’t bitterly cold. Some years are stingingly cold. The parade follows the life of young Joan in 1400s France to martyr, to saint. Different sub-krewes represent the different periods of her life. In between, there is much chanting and singing, like a rolling Renaissance Faire.
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The procession is just the right amount of disorienting and lovely to start the season. The walking parade spills around dark corners of the French Quarter to the beat of a giant drum played by a skeleton. One woman portrays Joan as the statue given to the city by France in the 1970s. There are jugglers and stilt walkers and 100 angels.
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Like many of the newer parades, the throws are mostly hand made. Some lucky kids get wooden swords and most get votive candles and prayer cards.