MARCH 2, SUNDAY

ASHEVILLE MARDI GRAS\

Mardi Gras is a Christian celebration at the end of the carnival season before the somber season of Lent, the 40 days of repentance before Easter. I first encountered the carnival season in southern Germany where I was in the army in 1960. In Germany large during Fasching tents were set up where people drank from huge steins of beer and were reported to dance and let loose before the Lenten season. In the United States the biggest celebration of Mardi Gras is held on March 4 in New Orleans. But Asheville doesn’t want to be left out and each year the parade gets bigger and bigger.

But I don’t think that religious motivation was what was going on in Asheville on Sunday at 3 p.m.. On Sunday there was an interminable parade up Coxe Avenue on the South Slope below the center of town. The parade was a chance for groups to dress up in wild costumes and to advertise themselves with decorated floats. There were a number of bands in the parade. People in brilliant costumes threw Mardi Gras beaded necklaces and candy to the crowds along the edge of the street with children eagerly picking up the candy and filling their pockets.

I doubt if for most people the letting go had any religious significance at all. It was a chance for people to put on often fearsome costumes and to dance to the music of bands and to generally strut their stuff and hoop and holler. I took photograph after photograph. Here are a few of the photographs. I will add more as I process them.