Yes, yes, I know that Mardi Gras is done, dusted, and over for the year. But, just like Christmas decorations stay up after Christmas day, the Yardi Gras spirit continues for just a little while longer.

What is Yardi Gras you ask?

Well, after everyone had picked themselves up and dusted themselves off after learning that all the parades were cancelled due to covid, a woman here in New Orleans had the brilliant idea to decorate her house and throw beads at passersby. She encouraged others to do the same. The response was huge.

Thus, the Krewe of House Floats was born, described on their website as a “socially-distant Mardi Gras krewe founded under the belief that if we cannot safely gather together on the parade route in 2021, then we can bring the spirit of the parades home to celebrate the Carnival season in a pandemic-safe manner that supports our friends, neighbors, local culture-bearers and locally owned businesses.”

Soon, other krewes got in on the action.

The Krewe of Red Beans started the “Hire a Mardi Gras Artist” initiative, which crowdsourced the money to decorate houses and hire artists that typically work on the massive floats that, in a normal year, would be parading through the city.

Some of the rich folks that live on St. Charles Avenue hired float-making studios to create works of art on their lawns.

Thousands of house floats went up all over the city.

They provided a little bit of Mardi Gras cheer to everyone who walked by.

And they provided a little bit of help to those adversely impacted by the cancellation of Mardi Gras. Many of the houses had signs up instructing viewers how to venmo local charities. Some neighborhoods encouraged viewers to donate non-perishable food items.

Yardi Gras was damn near perfect (except for the idiot tourists that walked around without masks). We hope it is a new tradition, even after Mardi Gras resumes.