Mexico » Travel Photography » Carnaval in Mazatlán

I didn’t expect to see anything similar to Mardi Gras while here in Mexico, but Carnaval in Mazatlán was reminiscent in many ways. For those of you who are unfamiliar, I’ll do my best to elaborate. And for those of you with with New Orleans in your hearts already, I’m confident you’ll see the similar traditions immediately!

It’s difficult to put Mardi Gras into words. When we moved to New Orleans in 2016, I hadn’t yet learned what it was all about. In fact, while I had quickly fallen deeply in love with New Orleans, I was fairly hesitant about Mardi Gras. As an outsider who grew up in Oregon, I only ever seemed to hear about the wild party aspects, and I wrote it off as some weird thing college kids do. But having experienced it for five years, now I know that nothing could be further from the truth! It’s deeply rooted in tradition, and many of the events are family friendly.

“Mardi Gras” is actually one day of a larger season called Carnival. It begins with Twelfth Night on January 5th, which is twelve days after Christmas, the date the liturgical calendar observes the end of the Christmas season. Carnival is the period of time between the Christmas season and Lent. Because Lent is traditionally a time for penance and fasting, Carnival leading up to Lent is a time to cut loose. While the rest of the world is working on their New Years’ Resolutions, New Orleans is eating King Cake and getting their sparkly costumes ready! The final day of Carnival is Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), followed by the first day of Lent (Ash Wednesday), which is 40 days before Easter. Because Easter is on a different day each year, Mardi Gras is also not a fixed date, but it usually falls in late February or early March.

I have a vivid memory of the first time I walked down St. Charles on a parade day in New Orleans. The wide avenue is blocked from car traffic and the iconic streetcars don’t rumble down the tracks. Instead, the neutral ground (what most of the English-speaking world calls a ‘median’) is filled with tents, families, friends, BBQing, boiling crawfish, sharing food, drinks, and spending quality time together. The streets become a place for kids to play games, and for vendors to sell food, drinks, or last-minute costume additions. You can walk miles and miles and you’ll see the same scene unfolding with thousands of families throughout the whole city! You’re also pretty much guaranteed to make some new friends along the way. Carnival parade days are all about soaking up the sunshine and making memories.

Of course, New Orleans Mardi Gras is much more than just parades! There are many amazing old and new traditions that take place during the six to eight weeks of Carnival season. We were blessed with five years in New Orleans, and although we made a point to see as many new sights as we could each year, we still didn’t see everything it has to offer. It immediately became something I cherished, and studied, to learn the history, and to ensure I partake in the celebrations appropriately. I actually never brought my camera to any Mardi Gras events, because experiencing moments through the lens can keep me from being fully present, and I wanted to fully understand Mardi Gras before attempting to document it. I still can’t believe some people are lucky enough to have grown up with these traditions! The kids in the marching bands, the kids playing in the street, the kids on the ladders to catch all the treasures. It’s a rich cultural heritage.

Many of the traditions here in Mexico are quite similar, and the two clearly share the same roots. For example: New Orleans has King Cake; Mexico has Rosca de Reyes, a circular pastry, also decorated purple, green, and gold, that translates as “Wreath of Kings”. In New Orleans, King Cake is eaten as often as possible between Twelfth Night and Mardi Gras; in Mexico, Rosca de Reyes is only eaten on Twelfth Night (when many Mexican children open their Christmas gifts). Both cakes have a tiny plastic baby inside. In New Orleans, whoever gets the slice with the baby, brings the next King Cake to the next party; in Mexico, whoever gets the slice with the baby, brings the tamales to the fiesta on Candlemas Day.

Mazatlán is known as the third largest Mardi Gras celebration in the world (just behind Rio de Janiero [first] and New Orleans [second]) with an average attendance of just under one million tourists annually, mostly from within Mexico. Like New Orleans, Evan and I made new friends everywhere we went! The people were incredibly friendly. I’m aware that my big camera and brightly colored hair makes me stand out in a crowd, but rather than be embarrassed, I was pleasantly surprised at the number of people who approached me for passing conversation, or who gave peace signs and big smiles in hopes the foreign lady would take their photo. During the parade, a family took us under their wings, and helped push us to the front of the crowd! All in all, it was a comforting experience, and felt like a bridge between two cultures.

Let’s take a look at some photos, shall we?

The first thing I’m sure you’ll notice is the beach! Mazatlán is a coastal subtropical city. Many beach towns in Mexico have beautiful Malecóns, which are promenades along the waterfront. But at 21-kilometers, Mazatlán has the longest in the world! This long stretch of beach really made it so we didn’t feel overly crowded. Families spent time on the beach, playing, relaxing, walking the Malecón, and enjoying the dozens of musicians performing all day and all night.

Vendors serve up all kinds of treats. These are tostilocos, a popular Mexican street food: a bag of chips with tons of extra toppings like jicama, Japanese peanuts, cucumber, lime juice, chili powder, and hot sauce.

As day transitions into night, the vacation continues! Even on the nights without parades, people enjoy the warm nights, musicians attract crowds of people who boisterously sing along, and the vendors are always present with a variety of snacks.

The big parade in Mazatlán runs two times during Carnaval, always on the last Sunday and Tuesday. Much like New Orleans, people line up early in the day to ensure they have the best spot! Walking down the Malecón was very reminiscent of the energy walking down St. Charles Avenue, with the buzz of excitement all around.

As the parade slowly travels down the Malecón, the beginning of the parade is marked with bottle rockets. This keeps anticipation high along the parade route, as the little rocket explosions slowly get closer!

The first portion of the parade is a warm-up pre-parade. Perhaps to keep commercialization out of the actual parade, this is an opportunity for businesses to advertise their services, while getting the crowd hyped up, and throwing them some free treasures.

Once the real parade began, I had to laugh at the familiar sight of the tractors pulling big, beautiful parade floats! My husband Evan has a custom of high-fiving the New Orleans tractor drivers, but these Mazatlán tractors must have air conditioning.

Besides the parade, some of the other traditions surrounding Mazatlán’s Carnaval have a feeling of pageantry. The coronations of the King, Queen, Floral Queen, and Young Queen, are each stadium-filling events, featuring grand music performances, dances, and fireworks! Many of the float riders are wearing pageant sashes, and as you can see here, they all have gowns fit for a Queen! In contrast, New Orleans Mardi Gras also has royalty, Kings and Queens, and sometimes full courts. But most Krewes hold private functions for their members, rather than inviting the public to the royal coronations.

This parade-watcher jumped in and started dancing with the troupe.

New Orleans has dozens of different Carnival Krewes who each host their own parades. Each parade will have a cohesive theme, but the floats are separated by marching bands and dance troupes who don’t typically follow the theme. Examples of this include the Merry Antoinettes (all dressed like Mary Antoinette) or the Laissez Boys (pronounced “Lazy” Boys, featuring electric-powered recliner chairs). As you can see by these next two photos, Mazatlán floats are also separated by marching bands and dance troupes, but their theme is coordinated to the adjacent float!

As the sun sets, the vibrance of the floats really start coming to life.

A dance troupe wouldn’t be as strong without the “troupe moms”. Just like New Orleans, each troupe had a couple moms marching alongside them, prepared with water, and ready to jump in for costume adjustments.

Both New Orleans and Mazatlán have very elaborate and beautiful parade floats. When designing their floats, New Orleans has to consider the height restriction from overhanging oak trees, but Mazatlán floats are upwards of 14-meters tall!

The final float is the Carnaval King. The parade ends near the historic Olas Altas neighborhood, where the party continues!

Fireworks and musicians continue long into the night. But of course, at Midnight, the solemn season of Lent will begin.

Bonus photos! These were shot with my handy little PaperShoot Camera, during the moments I didn’t want to pull out my big camera. Feel free to check out my previous PaperShoot review, for all the details about this fun little camera.

You can see that using the PaperShoot with only the light of street lamps and neon signs is pushing to the edge of its abilities. But honestly, these are much better in darkness than my cell phone camera, and I like the grainy quality for these memories.

This was taken with the PaperShoot and the Prism Lens, to try to capture the energy of a swirling, dancing, group of revelers, singing along to the bouncing brass band! This was an experience I’ll never forget.

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