About this item
Highlights
- Beads are one of the great New Orleans symbols, as much a signifier of the city as a pot of scarlet crawfish or a jazzman's trumpet.
- About the Author: Doug MacCash covers New Orleans art and culture for NOLA.com The Times- Picayune The New Orleans Advocate.
- 156 Pages
- Social Science, Customs & Traditions
- Series Name: Louisiana True
Description
About the Book
"Beads are one of the great Crescent City symbols, as much a signifier of the city as a pot of scarlet crawfish or a jazzman's trumpet. They are New Orleans's version of the Hawaiian lei, strung around tourists and conventioneers' necks to demonstrate their enthusiasm for the city. As part of a series of novelty books about Louisiana culture and history, Mardi Gras Beads delves into the history of this iconic New Orleans artifact, exploring how Mardi Gras beads came to be in the first place and how they grew to have such an outsize presence in New Orleans celebrations. Beads are a big business based on valueless-ness. One hundred and thirty shipping containers, each filled with 40,000 pounds of Chinese-made beads and other baubles, arrive at New Orleans's biggest Mardi Gras throw importer each carnival season. That amounts to 2,600 tons of toss-able plastic trinkets. Beads are an unnatural part of the natural landscape, persistently dangling from the trees along parade routes like Spanish moss. They clutter the doorknobs of the city, sway beneath its rearview mirrors, test the load-bearing strength of its attic rafters and clog its all-important rainwater removal system. City employees removed 93,000 pounds of tangled beads from backed-up catch basins in 2018. Mardi Gras Beads traces the history of these parade trinkets from their origins in Twelfth Night festivities through the ascent of beads as the "premier parade catchable" by the Depression era. MacCash explores the manufacture of Mardi Gras beads by creators in places as far-flung as the Sudetenland, the Caribbean, and Japan, and traces the shift away from glass beads to the modern, disposable versions that clog up the city's trees, drains, and roads. Mardi Gras Beads concludes in the year of coronavirus, considering the future of biodegradable Mardi Gras beads in a city ever more threatened by the specter of climate change"--Book Synopsis
Beads are one of the great New Orleans symbols, as much a signifier of the city as a pot of scarlet crawfish or a jazzman's trumpet. They are Louisiana's version of the Hawaiian lei, strung around tourists' and conventioneers' necks to demonstrate enthusiasm for the city. The first in a new LSU Press series exploring facets of Louisiana's iconic culture, Mardi Gras Beads delves into the history of this celebrated New Orleans artifact, explaining how Mardi Gras beads came to be in the first place and how they grew to have such an outsize presence in New Orleans celebrations.
Beads are a big business based on valuelessness. Approximately 130 shipping containers, each filled with 40,000 pounds of Chinese-made beads and other baubles, arrive at New Orleans's biggest Mardi Gras throw importer each Carnival season. Beads are an unnatural part of the natural landscape, persistently dangling from the trees along parade routes like Spanish moss. They clutter the doorknobs of the city, sway behind its rearview mirrors, test the load-bearing strength of its attic rafters, and clog its all-important rainwater removal system. Mardi Gras Beads traces the history of these parade trinkets from their origins before World War One through their ascent to the premier parade catchable by the Depression era. Veteran Mardi Gras reporter Doug MacCash explores the manufacture of Mardi Gras beads in places as far-flung as the Sudetenland, India, and Japan, and traces the shift away from glass beads to the modern, disposable plastic versions. Mardi Gras Beads concludes in the era of coronavirus, when parades (and therefore bead throwing) were temporarily suspended because of health concerns, and considers the future of biodegradable Mardi Gras beads in a city ever more threatened by the specter of climate change.Review Quotes
"MacCash has succeeded in creating an account of the rich, complicated, ridiculous and utterly serious history and contemporary life of Louisiana's ubiquitous Mardi Gras beads. Bringing a reporter's eye for detail and storytelling, MacCash takes the reader through time and space, situating the development (and escalation) of Carnival bead throwing within multiple geopolitical, social, and economic contexts, all while keeping the reader engaged and enthralled. An essential read for anyone who has screamed, 'Throw me something' at a passing float."
--Laurie A. Wilkie, Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor of Social Sciences, University of California, Berkeley"It matters not that it's taken forever for someone to finally take an in-depth look at the history of Mardi Gras beads. Veteran newspaperman Doug MacCash does that and more in his new book simply entitled, Mardi Gras Beads. I thought I knew just about everything about beads, but MacCash's research has revealed new information. The book is interesting and informative and provides important facts about Carnival's most iconic throw."
--Arthur Hardy, publisher of Arthur Hardy's Mardi Gras GuideAbout the Author
Doug MacCash covers New Orleans art and culture for NOLA.com The Times- Picayune The New Orleans Advocate.