With Mardi Gras parades canceled, New Orleans residents are turning their homes into extravagant 'floats'
New Orleans' famed Mardi Gras parades have been canceled due to COVID-19.
With parades canceled, thousands of residents are decorating their homes to resemble parade floats.
Standout designs include dinosaurs in top hats and Bernie Sanders wearing his now-famous mittens.
New Orleans' famous Mardi Gras parades are canceled this year due to COVID-19, but that hasn't stopped residents from celebrating.
Resourceful residents are instead decorating their homes and businesses to resemble parade floats.
Mardi Gras is the period of "feasting and fun" that begins on January 6 and ends on Fat Tuesday, according to the official New Orleans Mardi Gras website.
Source: Mardi Gras New Orleans
With outdoor gatherings limited and dancing virtually prohibited under phases one and two of the city's reopening, New Orleans locals dreamed up the 2021 "house float."
Source: City of New Orleans
The day New Orleans announced that parades would be canceled, resident Megan Boudreaux tweeted "It's decided. We're doing this. Turn your house into a float and throw all the beads from your attic at your neighbors walking by."
—Medusa Stays Home Dammit (@antirealism) November 17, 2020
Bordeaux initially meant the comment as a joke, she told the Associated Press, but then began to really like the idea and started a Facebook group called "Krewe of the House Floats."
The group has over 14,000 followers at the time of writing. Bordeaux also created an official website for the "krewe," a New Orleans term for a Mardi Gras social organization.
Now, thousands of house floats have popped up across the city.
Source: Krewe of House Floats
Some house floats include traditional New Orleans motifs like this jazz trio ...
... or honor New Orleans celebrities, like the late Leah Chase, a legendary Creole chef.
Others have created fantastical worlds. Dinosaurs wearing top hats took over one front lawn ...
... circus animals claimed another ...
... and unicorns turned this New Orleans staircase into a runway.
Some buildings address politics, like this one that placed a Donald Trump effigy on its roof.
The viral Inauguration Day meme of Bernie Sanders even made it to New Orleans.
Read more: The grumpy Bernie Sanders meme is the best one to come out of the inauguration
This interpretation of Bernie looking cold while wearing oversized mittens has him on a bench next to a sign that says "Let the BERN times roll," a play on the New Orleans saying "Let the good times roll."
The spoofs don't end there. One set of residents transformed their house into a beach shack with a sign that reads "Wasted away again in Coronaville," a COVID-19 take on Jimmy Buffet's "Margaritaville."
This Dolly Parton-themed house float features a sign that says "vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vacciiiine," a play on Parton's 1974 song "Jolene." The cutout of Parton shows the singer holding a vaccine syringe.
New Orleanians may not be able to yell "throw me somethin' mister" to floats passing this year in hopes of obtaining a coveted beaded necklace, but they sure know how to celebrate given the circumstances.
"I know a lot of folks are sad and disappointed that Mardi Gras cannot be normal this year, but I am hoping that Krewe of House Floats can be a way for folks to channel their creative energy, make something positive out of a bad situation, and have something to look forward to in 2021," Boudreaux wrote on Krewe of House Floats' website.
Source: Krewe of House Floats
Read more: Disappointing photos show what it's really like to celebrate Mardi Gras in New Orleans
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