Friday 14 November 2014

Halloween - New Orleans

Halloween in New Orleans was quite an experience to say the least.  We found a streetside pub along Bourbon Street and parked ourselves for a couple of hours for "creature" watching.  Most popular this year are probably the orange jail jumpsuits of Litchfield Prison, from the hit TV show "Orange is the New Black".  When the restaurant suggested they close the shutters to the street to protect the restaurant from unruly party goers we decided it was in our best interests to leave.  We joined a couple of parades that meandered their way through the French Quarter streets.  As the night went on the atmosphere changed somewhat and we called it a night around 10:30 pm. A crazy fun evening. After spending almost two weeks in New Orleans, we really didn't want to leave.  There are not likely many other cities in the world with as great a reputation for decadence as New Orleans. 












There were many cemetery tours and ghost tours as well.  As much of the City is below sea level, bodies are not buried below ground given the high water table.  When early European settlers placed coffins under 6 feet of earth, the water level would often rise above them causing the caskets to sometimes rise to the surface and be founding floating in the streets during periods of floods.  The only solution was to bury the dead above ground.  The tombs or oven vaults in New Orleans cemeteries are used again and again.  Typically, after one year and one day the tomb will be re-used simply by breaking the brick and mortar seal, and pushing the remains to the rear of the tomb.





No comments:

Post a Comment