The delightful tradition of Mardi Gras food throws.
These days, Chabert, a political consultant and lobbyist, is a float-rider himself as part of a parading organization in Houma, Louisiana, a city with deep Cajun heritage about an hour southwest of New Orleans. When it's his turn to ride, he still stocks up on the usual beads, small toys, stuffed animals and other trinkets known as parade throws, which get tossed by Carnival parade riders into the clambering crowds below. But he's also sure to load up on edible snacks, too.
"The history of Carnival and food-ways is incredibly rich, diverse and long," said Cart Blackwell, the curator of the Mobile Carnival Museum in Mobile, Alabama, which is home to the largest American Carnival celebration outside New Orleans."The connection between food and throws is elemental." In the early 1950s, Blackwell said, a member of Mobile's oldest women's parading society, the Maids of Mirth, was frustrated after throwing boxes of Cracker Jacks.
Instead, that Maids of Mirth member got her hands on some Moon Pies, a soft, chocolate-covered marshmallow graham cracker sandwich, which is made in Chattanooga, Tennessee.