Fresh on the heels of Super Sunday—the well-known, city-wide Mardi Gras Indian celebration that falls every year on the third Sunday in March—came last night’s neighborhood revelry to mark St. Joseph’s Day itself.

As early evening rolled around, a couple of Big Chiefs and Spy Boys emerged from houses on North Rampart Street to dance, drum, and chat with families and neighbors, biding their time before heading towards the hallowed, acoustically-superb gathering spot under the Claiborne Bridge.

Photo: Paul Leleaux

Drum beats stopped and started, teenagers took turns breakdancing, and passerby snapped pictures. As the crowd grew and the sun began to set, the Indians and their followers slowly began the march over St. Claude and onward.

Like a snowball, the procession picked up more people as it climbed further into the 7th Ward.

Big Chiefs spotted one another more and more frequently, clearing the path between them with shouts of “Fire in the hole!” and charging into mock-battles where taunts and dances determined who was the “prettiest.”

By the time we reached Villere St., the whole neighborhood was turned outside for a giant block party, and there was a new tribe of Indians dancing, drumming, chanting, and stomping at almost every clogged street corner.

The mayhem rose as darkness fell, and fire torches and the glowing lights many of the Indians had sewn into their suits illuminated the lush night and gave the scene an otherworldly feel.

The supernaturally eerie, black-and-white-clad Fi-Yi-Yi Indians, dancing fiercely with members of the Baby Dolls, were especially spellbinding.

Their manic Wild Man was face-painted and adorned with straw like some kind of ghoulish scarecrow, shrieking and shoving at the crowd. He had no trouble clearing the crowd to make way for his Big Chief.

Things came to a head under the bridge, where Indians, marchers, musicians, bright feathers, blazing torches, dancing circles, incessant drum beats, and rank underfoot highway puddles all swirled together in a carousel of pandemonium.

The Big Chief face-offs intensified in the midst of the stomping throng, until eventually the tribes began to slowly peel off to the left and continue marching Uptown.

St. Joseph’s Day is a sacred holiday to the Mardi Gras Indians, and it was a privilege to be able to experience part of it.