When you hear the words Mardi Gras your train of thought might automatically direct you toward our neighbor to the east, Louisiana. The Boot has been well documented as a great place to catch beads, chase chickens, and search for porta-potties. But don’t think that Texans don’t love Fat Tuesday too.
Mardi Gras! Galveston is a huge celebration and there are Mardi Gras parades in La Porte, Orange, Beaumont, and even Dallas. Granted the parade in “Big D” probably wouldn’t ever feature anything as cool as the late Anthony Bourdain dressed in traditional garb to “chase the chickens” on Mardi Gras morning.
I will say this about Mardi Gras in New Orleans: Even for Texans, it should be on your “did that once” list. For some of us, “once” is more than plenty for Fat Tuesday in the French Quarter. But when it comes to scope and size the party they throw on Galveston Island is almost as big.
In fact, Galveston Mardi Gras is listed as the third-largest Fat Tuesday party in the United States. Naturally, New Orleans is on top of that list followed by St. Louis Missouri. What? Yeah, a city in the Midwest throws a huge bender for Mardi Gras and then just a few days later, at least this year. St. Louis will go green for St. Patrick’s Day. It’s a good thing they brew a lot of beer there.
While these places and parties seem to encompass all that Mardi Gras has to offer, there is one other iconic destination where Carnaval is even more entrenched in the fabric of society and in the culture of the people who live there. And from what we’ve been told the celebration here will make Mardi Gras in New Orleans seem like a church social with dinner on the ground.
Since 1723 those who make their homes along the lovely stretch of beach you see pictured above have been celebrating Mardi Gras or Carnaval. That beach is the world-renowned Copacabana Beach of Rio de Janeiro Brazil. I did not visit Rio and Copacabana during Carnaval, I went during an even more insane celebration, the FIFA World Cup.
The picture above is the crowd on Copacabana Beach at 11 in the morning on a Thursday to watch a World Cup Match on the big screens. Brazilians are passionate people and between soccer and Carnaval, it’s hard to determine which one they are more invested in…