How to enjoy a safe Mardi Gras this year

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  • Celebrating Mardi Gras at home may be the safest bet. The following tips can help make such celebrations more festive. (Courtesy photo)
    Celebrating Mardi Gras at home may be the safest bet. The following tips can help make such celebrations more festive. (Courtesy photo)
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Mardi Gras in 2021 will look very different from past celebrations. Even though COVID-19 already started to spread around the world in February 2020, New Orleans, home to one of the most famous Mardi Gras festivals, carried on with its historic parade as the world was still learning about the virus and how it spread.
According to New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, there will be no Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans in 2021, as “large gatherings have proven to be super-spreader events of the COVID-19 virus.”
Mardi Gras, which precedes the Christian Lenten season, is an opportunity for one final day of joviality and some well-intentioned indulgence prior to the solemn period of Lent. Revelers have long celebrated Mardi Gras with parades and a carnival atmosphere has become synonymous with New Orleans. Mayor Cantrell reiterates that Mardi Gras 2021 is “not canceled, just different.” That approach stands to carry over into other Mardi Gras celebrations around the world.
Celebrating Mardi Gras at home may be the safest bet. The following tips can help make such celebrations more festive.
• Bake a King Cake. This cake is only available during Carnival season. It is a circular sweet pastry frosted to look like a crown in the yellow, green and purple colors of Mardi Gras. A plastic baby is baked inside of the cake. Whoever finds the baby typically hosts the festivities the following year.
• Order or make southern food. Delve into recipes for New Orleans cuisine, such as hush puppies or po’boy sandwiches. For a Creole touch, simmer a pot of gumbo.
• Enjoy a Louisiana beer or other spirit. Research local breweries or distilleries based in Louisiana or another area known for Mardi Gras celebrations and have a beverage shipped to you.
• Buy or decorate masks. Mask-wearing has become the norm for people around the world, but Mardi Gras masks cover the eyes rather than the nose and mouth. Pick up inexpensive paper masks and craft supplies to make your own, or buy elaborate ones with beads and other embellishments.
• Keep “throws” on hand. Throws are one of the beloved traditions of Mardi Gras parades. Replicate the effect by tossing anything small, like candy coins or faux jewelry, back and forth with your fellow revelers.
Mardi Gras stands to be a bit different this year. However, low-key, at-home celebrations can still invoke the spirit of traditional Mardi Gras.

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