Rules to party by
Mamou sticks to old, some would say arcane, rules. It is all-male and unofficially segregated (there is an all-black Mardi Gras group that runs a different route on the same day), and requires all riders to be in costume.
When I went last year, I brought my boyfriend, my roommate and her boyfriend; none had ever seen the festival, but I persuaded the men to ride.
We arrived at the meeting hall about 7 a.m. and joined a line of men and teenage boys, all bleary-eyed and anxious. Some had not slept at all since the previous night's fais-do-do, or street dance. Most were dressed in the traditional Mamou Mardi Gras costume - colorful long-sleeved shirts and pants, accented in fabric fringes, with required masks. Some were wearing the capuchon as well, a tall, pointed duncelike cap decorated to match their costumes. (One teen, upon finding out that he must have a hat, ran outside to grab an empty Miller Lite box and placed it on his head.)
Before they can ride, their costumes are inspected by the capitaines, men who have run the Mardi Gras for many years and serve as the chaperons for the day. The capitaines do not drink and are not masked, though they wear purple, green and gold capes, the colors of Mardi Gras.
The riders pay $25 and sign a liability waiver, which reads, in part, that they are aware there will be large animals involved in the day's events, and they will not sue for any injuries they might incur.
After a large crowd of riders gathered, a capitaine asked if I was signing up a rider (parents can sign up their underage teens). When I said I was not, I was promptly told to leave the room. "No women allowed," he bellowed with a snicker.
The doors closed, and the riders were given a few rules, which my friends divulged later in the day. No talking to women ("This is a man's day!"), and no knives. That's it.
The riders tumbled out of the meeting hall and onto their horses. As they had no horses, my friends climbed onto the back of the "drunk wagon," one of three open-air trailers for Mardi Gras riders who can't ride their horses any longer.
In the front of the parade on a partially enclosed wagon, the band began to tune up. This collection of local men follows the Mardi Gras riders all day playing Cajun music tunes, including the traditional "Mardi Gras Song." It's a beautiful, haunting Cajun French tune played so often in the day that every participant, and every resident, knows at least some, if not all, of the words.
