Andrew G. Wood wrote in the
Brooklyn Rail that Mardi Gras “signals a change of season as winter
gradually gives way to spring … the festival can be appreciated as a fertility
rite with participants dancing, chanting, feasting and celebrating in hope of
aiding the coming year’s growing season. In certain cultures celebrants imagine
themselves cavorting with the dead …"
PICTURED: The original
Jacques-Imos, New Orleans, 2004.