NEWS

Annual courir revitalizes old Cajun tradition

Chad Washington

To some people, Mardi Gras consists only of eating lots of king cake, going to extravagant balls and catching beads from a float. But if you wanted to get to the traditional heart of Mardi Gras, you should have been at Vermilionville on Sunday.

The annual Courir de Mardi Gras celebrated the roots of the holiday as the Basile Mardi Gras Association brought an old-fashioned country Mardi Gras to Lafayette.

"Every time they call, we come," said Russell "Potic" Rider, president of the Basile Mardi Gras Association. "It's all about educating the people about our Cajun culture."

The festivities started off with the Basile Mardi Gras Association reenacting a traditional run where French settlers in southern Louisiana would go from house to house singing and dancing while asking the townspeople for food, all while dressed in Mardi Gras costumes.

"They come in and do a traditional run from house to house, begging for ingredients while singing and dancing for onions, bell peppers, sausage, everything to make a community gumbo," Jolie Roberts, the museum operations coordinator for Vermilionville, said.

While the early morning rains did put a small damper on the event, the skies cleared out in the afternoon. Having the event indoors kept things nice for the revelers, Roberts said.

"It's a really good event for families to be able to experience a traditional courir because it's enclosed and safe," Roberts said.

The festivities also had a chicken-chasing event for the kids, and served gumbo to attendees while the Pine Leaf Boys, a traditional Cajun band, performed in the event center.

Authenticity is the thing, as everything from the costumes to the French song that Rider sings is directly from how Mardi Gras was celebrated in the country in the 1800's. And Rider has kept everything he does

"That song tells us everything that we do on our run," he said. "We beg for chickens and we beg for rice, and then we sing and dance and thank the people. And it's all done in French."