Hunter's Courir De Mardi Gras

Title

Hunter's Courir De Mardi Gras

Artist

Seaux-N-Seau Soileau

Medium

Mixed Media - Acrylic On Canvas With Photo Editing

Description

This image is my painting Mardi Gras At The Hunting Club with photo editing done to it. I wondered what would happen if the Courir de Mardi Gras was held at a hunting club with wild ducks thrown out instead of chickens and deer and alligators to ride instead of horses. This painting is the result.
The Courir de Mardi Gras is the way Cajuns and Creoles celebrate Mardi Gras in rural areas of South central Louisiana. The participants are usually men (but in some communities women run also and some communities have a run only for women.) Participants dress in colorful costumes usually made in cotton or cotton blend fabrics. The costumes have long sleeves shirts and long pants. Fringes made of cut fabric are sewn on the costume. Hats that cover the hair to hide the identity are worn. Tall pointed hats are most common but miter board hats are sometimes used too. Skirts are sewn on the backs of hats to hide the hair. Screen Masks that are painted in bright colors with fabric trims and features such as large pointed noses, are woolly eyebrows are shiny satin tongues are also worn.
The participants designate a leader called a captain who keeps the participants in line. The captain rides ahead of the participants and asks homeowners in the area if they would welcome the Mardi Gras participants. If it is agreed on a flag is waved and the Mardi Gras comes into the yard with music, singing, and dancing. They beg for ingredients for a community gumbo. The prize ingredient is a live chicken. If the homeowners decide to give a chicken(s) it is thrown out for the participants to chase and catch. This is comical to watch as the weather is often cold and the men have been drinking to stay warm and also because they know that the next day will be Ash Wednesday which begins Lent and 40 days of fasting. After the ingredients have been gathered from all the homes in the community a large gumbo is cooked and all in the community are invited. Sometimes gumbo is sent to the elderly and those who are homebound. The music and festivities continue until late in the evening. But between 9-11:00 pm all the music stops and the clean up begins. By the stroke of midnight, all are back home. The next day on Ash Wednesday all will be somber but many will wonder which of pious men in church was the fool dancing on top the back of his horse in hopes of getting a chicken to chase.
Featured in the following Fine Art America groups: Poetic Poultry
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June 20th, 2017

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