With Mardi Gras parades cancelled this year due to COVID-19, many in New Orleans have decorated their houses to look like parade floats, complete with lights, props and, of course, beads. The Carnival spirit has spread beyond New Orleans, with “expats” around the country also decorating their homes – including a few in South Bend.
Michelle Gloss is a longtime Michiana resident who moved to New Orleans for about five years in the late 1990s. Her house is decked out in purple, green and gold fringe, and the porch windows are filled with life-sized mannequins in elaborate costumes and headdresses.
Like many former New Orleanians, Gloss decided to decorate her home as part of the Expat Krewe of House Floats, named for the social groups that put on New Orleans’ many Mardi Gras parades.
“It initially, I believe, was just kind of a lark. Somebody was like ‘Oh, we should decorate our houses as floats, and then it just caught fire," she said. "It’s really been a saving grace.”
Around this time of year, Gloss would normally be back in New Orleans, reconnecting with old friends and getting ready to ride on her krewe’s float. But since the pandemic has made travel and gathering unsafe, she said she’s missing that sense of community this year.
“It’s not just the excitement of Mardi Gras itself, but my chosen family is down there," she said "I would take my two weeks and two days [and] forget about everything. It was just a way for me to rejuvenate myself and recuperate.”
Gloss said the house floats have helped recapture some of the Carnival spirit. She said working on her decorations each day has helped break up the pandemic monotony, and knowing there are over 250 other expats working on their own houses is comforting.
One of those houses is actually only a few miles away. Lydia Dreyer lives on Dorwood Drive; she moved to New Orleans in 2015 to become a teacher and just moved back to South Bend in August.
Her decorations aren’t quite as elaborate as Gloss’s, but they do bring another key piece of New Orleans to South Bend – the trees.
“New Orleans doesn’t have seasons, but it does have Mardi Gras tree season," Dreyer said. "When people are throwing the beads off the floats, they get stuck in the trees, they are on the telephone wires, so that’s why we decided to decorate the trees.”
Like Gloss, Dreyer said the Krewe of Houses has brightened up a dark year and added some color to a season that, outside of New Orleans, is typically pretty gloomy.
“I still feel like I’m a part of New Orleans, even though I’m all the way in Indiana," she said. "It’s definitely made it more fun, especially when it’s cold and icy and not fun outside.”
Dreyer and Gloss are both planning to bring the Carnival spirit to the rest of their neighborhoods on Mardi Gras, which falls on Feb. 16 this year. Dreyer said her family is making sugar cookies for the neighbors, and Gloss said she’ll have beads on her lawn for passersby to pick up.
Gloss says spreading the cheer – in a pandemic-safe way – is what Carnival is all about this year.
“The krewe wanted to really spread the joy of Mardi Gras and Carnival in general," she said. "It’s just about trying to keep everybody cheerful, boost people’s spirits.”
Contact Gemma atgdicarlo@wvpe.orgor follow her on Twitter at@gemma_dicarlo.
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