Remember, Reptiles Banned from Mardi Gras Parades
If you're heading to New Orleans for Carnival, leave your reptiles at home. The scaly creatures are banned from the city's parade routes -- for 2 hours before, and 1 hour after.
Apparently some people once thought live snakes would make great scarves.
The Big Easy has seen it all -- breast-baring women, public drunkenness and flying objects. As a result, it's got some pretty great Mardi Gras laws.
Mardi Gras is all about celebration -- and throwing things at your friends. But permission to toss the iconic beads is limited in scope. Drunken revelers are cautioned not to throw beads from 8 feet above the ground -- it's illegal under local law, explains KNOE-TV.
And don't even think about throwing anything at the Mardi Gras floats -- even if a Krewe member accidentally hits you in the head with a coconut. Any sort of retaliation would be prohibited under New Orleans' Mardi Gras laws.
Those laws also limit your choices to paper or plastic -- cups, that is. You can't walk the streets drinking from glass or metal containers. Officials don't trust partygoers not to use them as weapons.
You shouldn't either.
If you happen to be drinking out of one of those cups, you might want to avoid any ladders. Alcohol and height simply don't mix. But if you're sober as can be, official rules require all ladders to be placed at least one foot from the curb for each foot in height.
A five-foot ladder must be five feet from the street.
Keep these Mardi Gras laws in mind when you head down to Bourbon Street. And watch out for flying beads.
Related Resources:
- Mayor Mitch Landrieu details Mardi Gras parking, neutral ground and permit rules (Times-Pcayune)
- With New DWI Laws, Louisiana's Mardi Gras Culture Evolves (FindLaw)
- Dumb Laws: Dumbest Laws Involving Animals (FindLaw's Legal Grounds)