New Orleans Carnival Krewes: The History, Spirit & Secrets of Mardi Gras

By Rosary O'Neill and Kim Marie Vaz

New Orleans is practically synonymous with Mardi Gras. Both evoke the parades, the beads, the costumes, the food--the pomp and circumstance. The carnival krewes are the backbone of this Big Easy tradition. Every year, different krewes put on extravagant parties and celebrations to commemorate the beginning of the Lenten season. Historic krewes like Comus, Rex and Zulu that date back generations are intertwined with the greater history of New Orleans itself. Today, new krewes are inaugurated and widen a once exclusive part of New Orleans society. Through careful and detailed research of over three hundred sources, including fifty interviews with members of these organizations, author and New Orleans native Rosary O'Neill explores this storied institution, its antebellum roots and its effects in the twenty-first century.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Feb 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781625846099

Rosary O'Neill

I was born and raised in New Orleans, living between my parents’ house and my grandmother’s mansion on the streetcar line. Because New Orleans is somewhat isolated and European, her people are very exotic like rare birds and different; they love to party, to put on airs, and to act unique. Everyone has a story. Everyone is related, and everyone could be and wants to be a character in a Tennessee Williams’ play. The exotic, bizarre, sensual flavor of that Mississippi River city made me want to write. My playwriting did not take off until I had worked as an actress and director in California and New York, become a university professor, written two books on theater, The Actors Checklist, and The Director as Artist: Play Direction Today, and founded a theatre, Southern Repertory Theatre. We initiated a new play festival to develop new voices and a friend challenged me to write. My play, "Wishing Aces" won me a Senior Fulbright Research Specialist grant to Paris. From then on, I stopped writing textbooks and wrote plays primarily about New Orleans. When I first wrote plays, I was fascinated by how bizarre my family and friends seemed, after having lived away for fifteen years in California and New York. All my work focuses on Louisiana and interconnections of complex personalities in New York, Paris and New Orleans. I also write novels about Louisiana and the South, and my work "Tropical Depression" was twice a finalist in the William Faulkner – William Wisdom Novel Competition. In addition I also won five fellowships with Ernest Gaines (author of The Lesson Before Dying) in Lafayette, LA.

Reviews for New Orleans Carnival Krewes

[amaryann21 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read everything about Mardi Gras and New Orleans that I can get my hands on, and there's a lot out there. This is specifically about the krewes of carnival and the role they've played historically, socially, and politically throughout the last two centuries. O'Neill even brings us the origin of masked balls, which started in Europe and were brought here by the French. The history of what most people think is just a big, drunken party is so much bigger and majestic and, sometimes, prejudiced and elitist. One point the author makes repeatedly is the changes to New Orleans and Mardi Gras since Katrina. It is not presented at all in victim-related terms, but that it changed carnival to be more inclusive and brought some of the community spirit more to the forefront. For anyone who is familiar with Mardi Gras, fascinated by NOLA and likes history, this is a gem of a book. Oh, and my walking krewe was mentioned, so hail KOE!!