LSUE Mardi Gras Photos:
2009 2008 2007 2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
Click here to go the Official Church Point Courir de Mardi Gras Page.
Mardi Gras Archive: Final update of this page
completed in 2009.
Church Point's Mardi Gras courir takes place on the Sunday before
Mardi Gras. The men don costumes and masks and roam the area on horseback, stopping at
homes to perform dances and comic antics in return for the gift of a chicken, a guinea, a
pig, or another ingredient for a gumbo.
Riders gather at the Saddle Tramp
Riding Club (1036 E. Ebey Street on the Lewisburg Highway) at 7 a.m. the Sunday preceding
Mardi Gras, and the courir begins at 9 a.m., rides through the countryside,
and then parades through Chuch Point about 2 p.m. In 2009, Church Point
began a three-day Mardi Gras celebration downtown (check
out the official site for the current schedule).
The Church Point capitaine is Elton "Joey"
Richard, son of the late Elton Richard, who revived the Church Point courir in 1968, when
he and Paul Tate of Mamou flipped a coin to determine when the courirs would take place.
The outcome: Church Point got Sunday and the Mamou courir, Tuesday.
|
|
When the
Mardi Gras arrive at a house where they want to stop, the capitaine rides up to the home
to meet with the homeowner to get permission for the riders to come on the property. Then
the riders charge full speed down the driveway. In 1998, drizzly, misty weather could not
dampen the spirits of the Mardi Gras.
Photographs on this page were taken during their visits
in 1998 on a dark, rainy day and 1999 on a bright, sunny day to the home of Jim and Betty
David, who welcomed the courir at their home for many years. David had chickens and a guinea
hen to offer the Mardi Gras, who gave chase through the brown wintertime grass. The
band, riding in a trailer, played the Mardi Gras song while the men danced and carried on.
Click
here to go to a page with an audio file of the Mardi Gras song. |
Dr. Ty Hargroder, a Church Point physician and an LSUE alumnus, is shown dancing on his
horse. Because he is a co-capitaine, Hargroder is not masked. |
|
Return to Mardi
Gras Main Page
Return to Church Point
Page
|