New Orleans Halloween Parade
Ghoulish Krewe of Boo Plans to Roll Voodoo Past French Quarter
Oct 15, 2008 Carroll Trosclair
Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau and similar scary characters will highlight New Orleans’ Krewe of Boo Halloween Parade. It’s small compared to the huge, 35-year-old New York Village Halloween Parade, but New Orleans’ history and culture give the Krewe of Boo a natural environment for growth.
Unlike carnival parades, this one is a fund raiser for the city’s first emergency responders, especially those who served in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
It will roll at 7 p.m., starting at Elysian Fields and Decatur and then proceed to Canal Street and Convention Center Boulevard..
The Halloween parade is the creation of float-maker Blaine Kern, who is recognized in New Orleans as "Mr. Mardi Gras." Blaine’s firm builds many of the floats used in carnival parades both in New Orleans and other cities. His combination float warehouse and Mardi Gras museum is a favorite tourist attraction.
Definite Mardi Gras Flavor
The Halloween parade has a definite Mardi Gras flavor, including a royal court, drawn from contributors to the First Responders Fund, and the use of the word "krewe," a New Orleans derivation of the word "crew’ for carnival organizations.
Like carnival parade organizations, The Krewe of Boo produces official "krewe favors" and throws souvenirs to crowds along the route. In keeping with the Halloween spirit, the throws include such items as bones and jack o’lanterns. Voodoo dolls will be a natural addition to the list and are likely to have crowds screaming and scampering for them, just as they scream for beads during carnival parades.
Blaine’s vast collection of carnival floats and the art studio that designs them gave him a head start in developing the parade and are likely to be reflected in the design of the Halloween floats.
Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau
New Orleans’ history and culture provide numerous Halloween connections for the parade, including:
- Its association with voodoo, a death-oriented spiritual import from Haiti;
- It’s own 19th Century voodoo queens, Marie Laveau and her daughter, Marie, both of whom reportedly cast spells over African Americans and rich whites.
- It’s internationally famous above-grown cemeteries. An above-ground tomb is included in the krewe’s logo.
Orleanians were assured that while Krewe of Boo parades will be spooky, they will also be fun and designed for families and kids to enjoy.
The parade will be accompanied by several other Krewe of Boo Halloween-flavored, fund-raising events, including a Halloween Costume Expose’ party following the parade. The costume event attracted over 1,000 guests at its inauguration in 2007, a year before the first parade. The addition of the parade in 2008 was expected to increase party attendance significantly.
New York conducts the nation’s largest public Halloween parade. It reportedly is attended by over two million people and seen by another million on television. It invites costumed revelers to join in the parade and those without costumes to volunteer to carry a puppet. The parade takes two hours to leave the staging area on Sixth Avenue. It is primarily a pedestrian event but allows selected vehicles to join.
Sources:
- New York Village Halloween Parade.com
- Krewe of Boo.org
- Angus Lind, The Times-Picayune, Oct. 13, 2008
Krewe of Boo Logo
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Krewe of Boo member favor
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