Bandera Cowboy Mardi Gras Parade 2023
Photos by Jessica Nohealapa'ahi
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February 12, 2023
Bandera Cowboy Mardi Gras parade spectators load Main Street
By Jessica Nohealapa'ahi
The Bandera Prophet
More than 120 floats and nearly a thousand riders cruised down a packed Main Street on Saturday for the annual Bandera Cowboy Mardi Gras parade.
Extra law enforcement was on site, helping to monitor the crowd and keep spectators off the road in their pursuit of beads, coins, stuffed animals, ramen, and other things thrown from floats during the parade, which lasted more than an hour.
The Carnival season kicked off Jan. 6 and this year culminates on Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras), Feb. 21.
The first Carnival celebration dates back to the 17th Century as a Catholic observation, beginning on Three Kings Day and ending with a final feast on the Tuesday before Lent.
An excerpt from a book published in 1860 describes a parade in New Orleans in 1835:
"Men and boys, women and girls, bond and free, white and black, yellow and brown, exert themselves to invent and appear in grotesque, quizzical, diabolic, horrible, strange masks, and disguises... parade and march on foot, on horseback, in wagons, carts, coaches, cars, &c., in rich confusion, up and down the streets, wildly shouting, singing, laughing, drumming, fiddling, fifeing, and all throwing flour broadcast as they wend their reckless way."
Extra law enforcement was on site, helping to monitor the crowd and keep spectators off the road in their pursuit of beads, coins, stuffed animals, ramen, and other things thrown from floats during the parade, which lasted more than an hour.
The Carnival season kicked off Jan. 6 and this year culminates on Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras), Feb. 21.
The first Carnival celebration dates back to the 17th Century as a Catholic observation, beginning on Three Kings Day and ending with a final feast on the Tuesday before Lent.
An excerpt from a book published in 1860 describes a parade in New Orleans in 1835:
"Men and boys, women and girls, bond and free, white and black, yellow and brown, exert themselves to invent and appear in grotesque, quizzical, diabolic, horrible, strange masks, and disguises... parade and march on foot, on horseback, in wagons, carts, coaches, cars, &c., in rich confusion, up and down the streets, wildly shouting, singing, laughing, drumming, fiddling, fifeing, and all throwing flour broadcast as they wend their reckless way."