What is the Real Spirit of Mardi Gras?

Robert Tallant on Left With Friends photo courtesy New Orleans Public Library

Robert Tallant, the New Orleans author, said it all- Mardi Gras is a spirit…an immortal one…as immortal as man’s ability to make believe, to escape the dreariness of the everyday life that is most men’s portion, to have fun, laugh and to play…Mardi Gras is very old, but it is also very young. It belongs to the past, yet also to the present and the future. The face it wears is not necessarily its last. It will exist in other forms, in other times, in other places. It would be wonderful if the clown in the grinning mask should appear on all the Main Streets of the world, if the blazing flambeaux and the rocking floats there could be a season or at least a day devoted to Laughter.

More on Robert Tallant photography here @ nutriasdotorg.

New Orleans Mardi Gras Revelers, 1905

Robert Tallant Photo of Mardi Gras Truck Maskers Courtesy New Orleans Public Library

A Group Of Maskers on Canal Street During Carnival New Orleans Postcard, 1914

The color photo above and the 1905 trio of Mardi Gras costumers above are from Tidbits, Trinkets and Images.

1930s Rex Parade from WPA Archives