Photos of the 2005 OAK parade
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The Krewe of OAK is a small neighborhood New Orleans Mardi Gras krewe and parade held in the Carrollton neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana. The parade starts and ends on Oak Street, presumably the origin of the name, although members say that OAK stands for "Outrageous And Kinky". [1]
The krewe's Carnival parade is held on the Friday night before Mardi Gras Day. OAK also holds a "Mid Summer Mardi Gras" celebration, usually in August. [2] The Krewe Ball is held at the Maple Leaf Bar, and parades start and end outside that neighborhood landmark.
The Krewe of OAK is an example of neighborhood Carnival celebrations. Since the 1980s it is the only parade still marching in Carrollton during the Carnival season, as the neighborhood's older Krewe, the Krewe of Carrollton, now parades on Saint Charles Avenue and Canal Street, one of the routes which the city government now strongly pressures parades over a certain size to follow.
The parade traditionally features golf cart floats with effigy heads of notable Carrollton characters, including James Booker. Additionally, there are jazz brass bands, dance troupes, and home-made floats and costumes.
The 2005 Krewe of OAK Midsummer Mardi Gras Parade on Saturday night, 27 August 2005, was the last parade held in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina.
The annual Krewe of OAK Mid-Summer Mardi Gras parade usually takes place on the last weekend of August. But in 2017 the foot parade was held on the second to last weekend of August in order to better coincide with the upcoming solar eclipse.
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Mardi Gras is the final day of Carnival ; it thus falls on the day before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday", reflecting the practice of the last night of consuming rich, fatty foods in preparation for the Christian fasting season of Lent, during which the consumption of such foods is avoided.
A krewe is a social organization that stages parades and/or balls for the Carnival season. The term is best known for its association with Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, but is also used in other Carnival celebrations throughout Louisiana and along the Gulf of Mexico, such as the Gasparilla Pirate Festival in Tampa, Florida, Springtime Tallahassee, and Krewe of Amalee in DeLand, Florida with the Mardi Gras on Mainstreet Parade as well as in La Crosse, Wisconsin and at the Saint Paul Winter Carnival.
The Mistick Krewe of Comus (MKC), founded in 1856, is the oldest extant New Orleans, Louisiana Carnival Krewe, the longest to continually parade with few interruptions from 1856 to 1991, and continues to hold a tableau ball for its members and guests, to date. Initially its public facade was The Pickwick Club.
The Rex Organization, commonly referred to simply as Rex, is a New Orleans Carnival krewe which stages one of the city's most celebrated parades on Mardi Gras Day. Rex is Latin for 'king', and Rex reigns as "The King of Carnival".
The holiday of Mardi Gras is celebrated in southern Louisiana, including the city of New Orleans. Celebrations are concentrated for about two weeks before and through Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday, the season is known as Carnival and begins on 12th Night, January 6th, and extends until midnight before Ash Wednesday. Club, or Krewe, balls start soon after, though most are extremely private, with their Kings and Queens coming from wealthy old families and their courts consisting of the season's debutantes. Most of the high society Krewes do not stage parades. As Fat Tuesday gets nearer, the parades start in earnest. Usually there is one major parade each day ; many days have several large parades. The largest and most elaborate parades take place the last five days of the Mardi Gras season. In the final week, many events occur throughout New Orleans and surrounding communities, including parades and balls.
The Krewe of Endymion is a New Orleans Mardi Gras super krewe and social organization.
"La Société de Saint Anne" is a New Orleans Mardi Gras marching krewe that parades each Mardi Gras Day. La Société de Saint Anne was founded in 1969 by residents of the French Quarter and nearby Faubourgs who recognized the need for a return to earlier traditions of "walking krewes" which at one time were more prevalent but which had been overshadowed by the development of larger float parades in the early 20th Century. As the float parades grew in scale and number, they were forced to move out of the narrow streets of the French Quarter and onto broader avenues uptown and in mid-City. The walking krewes were groups of neighbors from various wards of the city who took to the streets on foot, in celebration of their common love for the City of New Orleans and the food, music, drink, spirituality, and lifestyles that developed there during the 18th, 19th & 20th centuries. La Société de Saint Anne was formed to bring the celebration back down to street level and to revive this old tradition of celebration in the residents' own area. In the ensuing years, as the more bohemian elements of the French Quarter were forced to move further downriver to the Marigny and Bywater neighborhoods by rising property values and rents in the French Quarter, the krewe grew in size and inspired many other such walking krewes to form as subkrewes or as separate krewes altogether. The original krewe now can be identified by the cluster of crabnets and the presence of the Storyville Stompers.
Carnival Memphis is a series of parties and festivals staged annually since 1931 in Memphis, Tennessee, by the centralized Carnival Memphis Association and its member krewes during the month of June. Carnival salutes various aspects of Memphis and its industries, and is reigned over by current year's secretly selected King, Queen, and Royal Court of Carnival.
Krewe of Tucks is a New Orleans Mardi Gras krewe.
Lundi Gras is a relatively recently popularized name for a series of Shrove Monday events taking place during the Mardi Gras. It includes the tradition of Rex, king of the New Orleans carnival, and Zulu King arriving by boat. This began in 1874, but the term Lundi Gras was not widely applied until 1987 when the arrival was brought back as part of a series of river-related events under the name of "Lundi Gras". Lundi Gras was the creation of journalist Errol Laborde. The event was staged with the cooperation of Riverwalk Marketplace and its then marketing director Carol Thistle Lentz. The events are detailed in Laborde's book, Krewe: The Early New Orleans Carnival from Comus to Zulu.
The Striker's Independent Society (SIS) is the oldest continuously active mystic society in Mobile, founded in 1843, Alabama. Mobile's Mardi Gras history spans over 300 years, as customs changed with the ruling nations: Mobile was the capital of French Louisiana in 1702, then British in 1763, then Spanish in 1780, entered the Republic of Alabama, was declared American in 1812, a U.S. state in 1819, then Confederate in 1860, then became American again in 1865 and participated in Carnival during New Year's Eve and New Year's Day celebrations. It is the oldest remaining mystic society in America but no longer hosts an annual parade.
Mardi Gras is the annual Carnival celebration in Mobile, Alabama. It is the oldest official Carnival celebration in the United States, started by Frenchman Nicholas Langlois in 1703 when Mobile was the capital of Louisiana. Although today New Orleans and South Louisiana celebrations are much more widely known for all the current traditions such as masked balls, parades, floats and throws were first created there. From Mobile being the first capital of French Louisiana (1702), the festival began as a French Catholic tradition. Mardi Gras has now evolved into a mainstream multi-week celebration across the spectrum of cultures, becoming school holidays for the final Monday and Tuesday, regardless of religious affiliation.
A mystic society is a Mardi Gras social organization in Mobile, Alabama, that presents parades and/or balls for the enjoyment of its members, guests, and the public. The New Orleans Krewe is patterned after Mobile's Mystics. The societies have been based in class, economic and racial groups. Mobile's parading mystic societies build colorful Carnival floats and create costumes around each year's themes.
Mardi Gras in the United States is celebrated in a number of cities and regions in the country. Most of these places trace their Mardi Gras celebrations to French, Spanish, and other Catholic colonial influences on the settlements over their history.
The Krewe du Vieux is a New Orleans Mardi Gras krewe more fully known as the Krewe du Vieux Carré.
Krewe of Carrollton is a New Orleans Mardi Gras krewe.
The Mystic Krewe of Nyx is an all-female Krewe organization, based in New Orleans. Organized and founded by Julie Lea in 2011, the Nyx's first pageant, "NOLA Reality Reigns," was featured on the St. Charles Avenue Parade Route on February 15, 2012. The Mystic Krewe of Nyx is named after the Greek goddess of the night, Nyx.
The Krewe of Cleopatra is a New Orleans Mardi Gras Super Krewes and social organization.
Knights of Babylon is a New Orleans Mardi Gras krewe that was founded in 1939.
Henri Schindler is an American Mardi Gras historian and float designer.