Hello everyone! I'm in Lake Charles, Louisiana with a
group of journalists experiencing Mardi Gras
We just finished touring a historical neighborhood,
what you saw in a previous vlog and now we're going back to our departure point for a few fun activities
This particular building is the third of three schools that have been on this piece of property
for well over 150 years
And when the school was deemed to be
unusable by the School Board, the School District, the citizens of Lake Charles actually voted themselves a
quarter cent sales tax, to run temporarily, to buy the school and update it
and use it as a Humanities Centre
which has been used now for about 25 years
Here they have the Mardi Gras Museum, but first let's go in for some dance lessons
We're gonna learn the zydeco, a traditional dance here in Louisiana
Hi! Nice to meet you! I'm Renata
_ Pleased to meet you! _ Nice to meet you!
So, you're like a celebrity dancer here
Yeah, a little bit, a little bit
So tell me a little bit about your family, your background
Zydeco music is very traditional in our family. My great cousin played the music. My great cousin,
I mean, my great uncle played the music,
my grandfather, and it just trickled down to even my son, as we speak, who is 17 years old
He's getting into the industry
and we just love zydeco music
It keeps our family together because it's a family traditional event that we do
We cook at home, we go outside
We dance on the patio
That's amazing! And it's so fun!
Yes, yes, yes!
"Five, six, seven, eight" "Side, in, back and up"
"Let's go! Side, in, back and up"
I tell a lot of people to
basically just listen to the music
because how you're gonna hear it it's gonna be the same way I'm hearing it. But, the feel of it...
You know? I tell some people "just feel the music" and I had some people when I teach dance respond
"I'm sorry... Feel it? Sorry!"
But, it eventually works itself out. It's really, really easy
She's already a natural
I teach the four basic ingredients of cooking a gumbo: water, season, meat and roux
So I'm gonna give you guys a little gumbo
And what you're going to see us doing
is going to be a little different than what I'm gonna teach you
But imagine the four steps that I'm going to teach. You add those little things you saw us doing there
It's gonna fit. It's gonna fit!
It's gonna cook. It's gonna boil!
"One, two, three... To the left right now"
"One, two, three... Let's go"
"One, two, three, four One, up, one, down"
"Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake Now roll it"
"One, two, three... To the right"
Give yourselves a hand!
So fun, huh? I think I was born to dance
Thank you very much for showing us. Thanks, bye!
Now the museum next door
So now let's see how different these costumes are compared to the ones we have in Brazil
For those of you who don't know, I'm from Brazil
So this is the largest museum of costumes in the world?
Yes, ma'am. We have the largest display, that we know of, of Mardi Gras costumes in the world
New Orleans does have about three or four museums, but they may have 10 or 50 costumes at a time
Ok. And they rotate?
Yes, ma'am. We try to keep ours out year-round
About 300 costumes on display
It's kinda tricky! How do I get this out? I don't know!
_ "Ah, right here. Ok!" _ "There you go"
Do you have a favorite here?
In here? In the museum? There's so many to choose from, it's hard to tell
Every time I pick up one that's my favorite, I find another one
I can imagine!
So, difference number one: they cover way more than the costumes in Brazil
Difference number two I'd say is how they wear. These costumes here they rarely wear on the streets
You know? It's normally during the galas. There's one tonight, and we're gonna see some of this in real life
_ "Thanks for having us here!" _ "Sure"!
As it's Mardi Gras, we have one more thing to do here at the Central School. Let's learn about the king cake
I'm gonna prepare my own king cake here. A tradition here in Louisiana
You'll try to find, to see if you have
you know, your little baby in there
because that's supposed to mean, good fortune,
good luck, but when we were in school,
we would get the king cakes and whoever found the
baby that means that you would have to bring
the next King cake, next week to class
So, our moms were not excited...
Ready for MasterChef now?
So, this, I'm bringing on the road
So much of Louisiana's culture in one single spot, you know? Nice!
What now? Time to eat
We're eating lunch at a restaurant called 1910. This, by the way, was the year that changed Lake Charles
There was a massive fire here
One third of the city was destroyed
Dessert now. There's this place here called Pops and Rockets. Ice cream!
Everything named after 80s songs and bands. Funny!
Why the eighties? Why did you choose this theme?
Well, It's the greatest generation ever, but, but really
It's just because my partner and I when we started we were so into 80s music
I agree! The best generation ever!
That's right. Generation X! My all-time favorite is the pineapple ginger
It's like fresh ginger juice with pineapple
and then we put like a single raspberry in the middle and its called "Blister in the Sun"
That's a really good one, as well
So you all let me know which you want to try
For me, I know: "Wake me up before you coco"
_ "Here you go" _ "Thank you"
Chocolate with marshmallow
Thank you very much!
Thank you for coming in. A pleasure meeting you!
So here's some green, gold... Ready for the Royal Gala tonight
Thank you!
We got more! We got plenty!
We're gonna see the royalty of Mardi Gras.
People from more than 60 krewes.
Everybody wearing their costumes
You'll see them all come out in the promenade
And some great music and a lot of fun and
Like I said, it's just kind of "the" moment. Our Cinderella moment for the season
And then it kind of leads into the big Fat Tuesday events tomorrow
This is behind-the-scenes, everybody getting ready
What is this?
It's glitter spray
Ah, okay
Sometimes if the weather is not iffy
they'll wear the royalty costumes on the floats, but if the weather is looking like it might rain
they might not just because there's
thousands and thousands of dollars of just materials tied up into the costumes
_ "Ready for the big night?" _ "I am ready!
Cool!
_ "Super Mario!" _ "Super Mario, that's right!"
_ "You are the strong man!" _ "Yes!"
So how did you choose?
It was... Our theme this year was carnival and curiosities
So all of our costumes go along with a carnival type theme
Well, good evening, everybody! And happy Mardi Gras!
Are you ready to party?
Each one of these krewes has a theme
Krewe = organization that puts on a parade or ball for the carnival season
There's a couple here representing Brazil!
Brazilian Carnival
"For the second year in a roll..."
Congratulations!
That was so fun to see people's excitement
and how they really cheer for the krewes, you know?
The community gets really involved
and it's so nice to see. I'm loving Carnival!
I'm loving Mardi Gras in Lake Charles!
Tomorrow there's more. Parade day!
Most of our parades are public parades that anybody can take a part of it
And that's one of the best things about Mardi Gras in Lake Charles
Is that it really is... It caters to everyone
The young, the young at heart. It's affordable. Many of the events are free for families to attend
And I think that that's the big draw for folks too
It's a great partnership between multiple groups that make Mardi Gras in Lake Charles happen
We're really excited to have you here!
It's a way for us to really
define for this younger generation of what 80's culture is, because, really, if we don't Urban Outfitters will
and they don't know what they are talking about
People love the Gator!