On Saturday, January 6, what would have been Joan of Arc’s 606th birthday will also mark the tenth anniversary of the parade in her name. The Joan of Arc Parade has announced that special guests from Orléans, France will toast the parade and donate parade costumes from France in celebration of the milestones. Ten different Joans of Arc will be portrayed in walking procession in honor of 10th anniversary, which will be followed by the city’s Tricentennial celebration fireworks on the River at 9:00 p.m.

The 10th annual Joan of Arc Parade begins at 6:00 p.m. at the corner of Toulouse and Decatur Streets; turns right on Conti, then right on Chartres, and pauses for a balcony toast (approx. 6:15 p.m.) at the Historic New Orleans’ Collection’s Perrilliat Building, 400 Chartres St., where a champagne toast to the 2018 Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc court will be included. Event speakers will include THNOC Executive Director Priscilla Lawrence, French Consul General Vincent Sciama, and Olivier Carré, Maire d’Orléans et Président d’Orléans-Métropole. The parade ends at Washington Artillery Park across from Jackson Square.

Five members of the Joan of Arc Parade will wear costumes delivered by the delegation from their annual Jeanne d’Arc Festival (Fetes de Jeanne d’Arc) parade, held on May 8 each year to honor the date that Joan lifted the Siege of Orléans and became known as the “Maid of Orléans”.  The Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc will in turn lend the delegation several New Orleans parade costumes for their spring 2018 parade in Orléans, creating a parade sisterhood.

In addition to these special costumes from France, parade-goers should look for ten Joans of Arcs in the parade, from villager Joan as a shepherdess in Domrémy at the front of the parade, to Joan of Arc as a soldier on her tricycle horse, to Joan as Saint, Joan as Spirit, Joan Hearing Her Voices, Joan as Prisoner, Heretic Joan, and more.  The most visible Joan of Arc is the Maid of Honor/Maid of (New) Orléans on horseback, who will be dramatically carrying her sword and wearing a breastplate decorated with the Krewe de Jeanne d’arc’s special  10th anniversary logo.

For more information on the parade visit www.joanofarcparade.org.