Carnaval Parade

Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Tuesday, call it what you will, but the days leading up to Ash Wednesday, the commencement of Lent, inspires celebration throughout the Christian world. The forty day period leading up to Easter Sunday is a time where many Catholics commit to fasting, as well as giving up certain luxuries in order to replicate the sacrifice of Jesus Christ's journey into the desert for 40 days; this is known as one's Lenten sacrifice. Thus the elaborate parties in preparation for the fast.

The Mazatlan Carnaval celebrations ended on Tuesday with the second of two parades along the Malecón. This parade and celebration is much more tame and family oriented than the parades at New Orleans’ Mardi Gras. Drinking is done on a small scale and there is none of the nudity that is so prevalent in the USA, although some of the parader’s costumes left little to the imagination. All of the country’s respective floats matched the themes of their statues that have decorated the city for the last couple of weeks. Each float was preceded by a dance troupe clad in colourful and imaginative costumes aso matching the theme. Candies, t-shirts, noise-makers and water bottles were tossed into the crowd by the people riding on the floats and all of this was backed by a non-stop barrage of up-beat Latin music.

Brenda and I left before the end of the parade as our bellies were starting to cry out for food by 7:30, but we thoroughly enjoyed the two hours of it that we saw.

As much as we enjoyed Carnaval, we’re glad the city is now returning to the peaceful, uncrowded place we’ve come to love.Read more