Phunny Phorty Phellows
Herald the arrival of the 2016 Carnival Season
Carnival Officially begins with the ride of the Phunny Phorty Phellows on Twelfth Night.
The Phunny Phorty Phellows will board at the RTA streetcar barn, located on Willow Street, at 6:30 p.m. on Twelfth Night, Wednesday, January 6th, 2016. The Phunny ride will begin at 7:00 p.m. sharp The streetcar, which, traditionally, is still bedecked in it’s yuletide dressings, will leave the station for a route that will take the partying Phellows along the St. Charles Streetcar line past Lee Circle and turnaround at Canal St. and then back to the barn. You can’t miss the streetcar, it’s the one with the really noisy party inside and a big sign hanging from it reading: “It’s Carnival Time!”
In 1982 the Phunny Phorty Phellows became the official heralds of Mardi Gras with their Twelfth Night ride in a traditional New Orleans streetcar announcing that, at last, the pre-Lenten season of “phun and phrivolity” had arrived.
Humor and whimsy are still very much a part of the Phunny Phorty tradition with some members favoring costumes inspired by current events and the peculiarities of local culture. Masked revelers gather at the streetcar barn in Uptown New Orleans for the Twelfth Night ride and get into the spirit of the event by carrying signs and banners with humorous slogans and messages. There are champagne toasts and second line dancing as the sounds of the famous Storyville Stompers New Orleans Brass Band fill the air; the Phellows, after cutting a ribbon and announcing, “It’s Carnival Time!” then board a decked-out party streetcar.
While on their merry way, the Phellows and other revelers sip champagne, eat King Cake, dance and let fly with the very first beads of the Mardi Gras season. There are two King Cakes used for this phirst night phrolic, one for the female members and one for the gents. Custom dictates that whoever takes the slices containing the plastic Carnival babies are declared Queen and Boss Phellow for the year.
All this revelry is in keeping with the motto printed on a Phunny Phorty Phellows 1896 bulletin:
“A little nonsense now and then is relished by the best of men!”
THE JOAN OF ARC PROJECT WAS FOUNDED IN 2008 BY AMY A. KIRK DUVOISIN TO CELEBRATE THE MAID OF ORLEANS (1412-1431).
Parade at 6 p.m. January 6 (St. Joan of Arc’s birthday and Twelfth Night) Walking parade in the French Quarter with a medieval, French and Joan of Arc theme
Parade Route: Toulouse & Decatur, down Decatur to Conti, up Conti to Chartres, continue on Chartres past Cathedral to Ursuline, down Ursuline to Peters, end at Washington Artillery Park street amphitheater across from Jackson Square. Runs about 45 minutes total so arrive on time!
Starts at the Natchez Pavilion with a city proclamation kicking off the Mardi Gras season
Pauses at the Historic New Orleans Collection Williams Research Center at 400 Chartres for toasts to our honorees: Maid Joan (a young woman between the ages of 16-19 who embodies the spirit of Joan and speaks French), King/Dauphin Charles (a male community leader embodying New Orleans’ French connection), and Queen Yolande (a female community leader embodying Yolande’s business and political savvy).
Pauses at the St. Louis Cathedral for a sword blessing ceremony. At 16, Joan was directed by a vision to find her original sword in the Church of St. Catherine de Fierbois.
Ends at Washington Artillery Park street amphitheater with Maid Joan crowning King Charles and sharing king cake with the crowd. Crowd is encouraged to bring their own king cake to share and perhaps your picnic wine for a toast.
About the Book Never before has the history of the Mardi Gras celebration been looked at this way. Errol Laborde focuses on the first 60 years of the organized celebration in New Orleans, a period that bridges the premiere parade of the Mistick Krewe of Comus and the founding of the Zulu organization. Along the way he discovers fascinating characters; including a poetic journalist who survived a bloody attack, an archduke looking for fun and a would-be king finding religion. Laborde also links an African War with Custer¹s Last Stand and disproves some of the conventional wisdom about Carnival¹s early history. This is the most important contemporary book on early Carnival history. And it fun to read too.
about Errol Laborde Errol Laborde is the Editor-in-Chief of Renaissance Publishing Company. In that capacity he serves as Editor/Associate Publisher of New Orleans Magazine and Editor/ Publisher of Louisiana Life Magazine.He also oversees several other company publications, including St. Charles Avenue and New Orleans Homes & Lifestyles.
Laborde is producer and a regular panelist on Informed Sources, a weekly news discussion program broadcast on public television station WYES-TV, Channel 12.
Laborde's
most recent books are Krewe: The Early Carnival from Comus to Zulu and Marched the Day God. a history of the Rex organization. He also wrote the text for a pictorial book, Mardi Gras- A Celebration and has published two compilations of his Streetcar local color columns, The Buzzard Wore A Tutu and I Never Danced With An Eggplant. BUY THE BOOK
