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Mardi Gras Schedules
Click here for 2001 Mardi
Gras pictures in Iota. • 2002 pictures.
Click here to go to Mardi Gras 2000 pictures in Iota.
Go to the official Tee
Mamou-Iota Mardi Gras Page.
Iota is the site of the Tee-Mamou-Iota Mardi Gras Folklife Festival. The festival, which
starts at 9 a.m. and continues until about 6 p.m., is held on the main street in Iota.
Bands play Cajun and Zydeco music on a raised stage that also has an area where dance
troupes perform and where, in between performances, members of the large crowd can dance
to the music. Food booths sell boudin, cracklins, gumbo, sauce piquant, beignets, fried
alligator, and other delicacies. Handmade crafts are also on sale, and Cajun artisans have
booths. |
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The Mardi Gras surround the front of
a rural home, begging and also
dancing with some of the ladies.
The Tee-Mamou wagon is shown
just after pulling out onto Highway
91 from the rural home on the
way to Iota for the parade.
Instead of tossing favors to the crowd
in Iota, the Mardi Gras beg for donations
as the ride into town.
In 1999, the Mardi Gras are shown
dancing precariously atop the Mardi
Gras wagon while riding into Iota.
In the distance, the band on the main
stage is playing "The Mardi Gras Jig." |
The highlight of the festival is the arrival of the Tee-Mamou
Courir. Tee-Mamou (i.e., Petit Mamou) is a small town about five miles west of Iota and 25
miles southwest of Mamou (also known as Grand Mamou or Big Mamou). Until his death the
Sunday before Mardi Gras in 1998, Gerald Fruge was the long-time capitaine of the run. He
also served as capitaine for the women's
courir held the Saturday before Mardi Gras. His son, Todd Fruge, is now capitaine of
the courirs. The courir uses a converted cattle trailer as the
Mardi Gras wagon. Wearing screen masks and
capuchons, the male riders gather at Fruge's barn off Highway 97 between Evangeline
and Basile. They leave about 8 a.m., stopping at various homes in the countryside to beg
for the ingredients for a gumbo. Some time after 2 p.m., the courir makes its way to Iota
to take part in the Mardi Gras parade at the Folklife Festival. Though the festival is
only a little over a decade old, the courir dates back further than anyone can remember,
perhaps 100 years. |
Click
here for more pictures of the 1999 Tee-Mamou-Iota Mardi Gras Folklife Festival.
| In addition, Iota has a children's Mardi Gras run on
Sunday (ages 8-13) leaving from the Iota Elementary School in the early afternoon. The
children ride in the same wagon used for the other Tee-Mamou-Iota runs. Children are
chosen to participate in the run and attend meetings at which they learn the traditions,
including the Tee-Mamou chant and dance. Like the other Mardi Gras, they wear costumes,
capuchons, and screen masks |
 
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Return to Mardi
Gras Main Page
Updated February 2001
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