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Chickens squawking and hiding!   Masked and “capuchon” hat- wearing men on horseback trying to catch them!  Pots of gumbo at the end of the day, simmering with all those chickens!   Accordions and washboards, medieval French songs, wild goings-on in the Louisiana prairie land around Mamou and Eunice and Iota and Church Point.

It’s another Carnival tradition you probably didn’t know about—the Courir de Mardi Gras, or the “Run.”

Out in the country a long way from the balls and glittering floats of Lafayette and New Orleans, Louisiana celebrates a different kind of Mardi Gras on Fat Tuesday, medieval in its origins.   The “run” or “courir” is led by the Capitaine of a group of riders, or maybe even a group on a truck or on foot, who traverse the countryside singing, dancing, and begging for something to fill the gumbo pot.   The traditional song is over 400 years old, “La Danse de Mardi Gras.”   It’s a haunting melody supposedly stemming from French Celtic roots that was brought to Acadia by the French settlers there, who later ended up in Southwest Louisiana and became, as we know, the “Cajuns.”

Today the small rural towns can draw thousands of visitors to the traditional celebrations.   Still, just like Mardi Gras in New Orleans, it’s really a local event that allows us Louisianans to leave our everyday identities at home, mock society doings, and celebrate yet again the fact that, on that particular Tuesday, March 4, 2014, we’re sure not like anybody else in the country.