Courir Parade

The traditional Courir Parade features a masked horse rider collecting gumbo ingredients from houses and businesses along a parade route. Along the way, chickens are released for the children to chase and capture for prizes. Consequently, the first parade in Port Arthur's Mardi Gras is known as "the chicken parade."


Photos by Mark M. Hancock / © The Beaumont Enterprise

Larry Shackelford (right) of Nederland rides Coco, a 10-year-old horse, along the intercoastal canal as the Cajun Country Classics band (left) prepares to perform before the Mardi Gras opening parade in Port Arthur on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2006.



A Clydesdale on the Budweiser team waits to be hitched to a wagon before the Mardi Gras opening Courir Parade in Port Arthur.


Members of the Mid-County Krewe de Acadiana coordinate by a float before the Mardi Gras opening Courir Parade in Port Arthur. In a traditional parade, a masked rider (played by krewe captain John Duplant, left) goes to houses and businesses to collect ingredients for a gumbo.


Savanna Sanford, 7, Cheyenne Allen, 6, and Jenna Medina, 7, scramble for beads at Rose Hill Manor before the Mardi Gras opening parade in Port Arthur.


Amonnie Lofton, 3, of Port Arthur gets beads from David Prioux of Groves (right) during the Mardi Gras opening Courir Parade in Port Arthur.


Carmen Blanton, wife of Port Arthur's chief of police, prepares to release a rooster at a stop during the Mardi Gras opening Courir Parade in Port Arthur. Along the way, chickens are released for the children to chase and capture for prizes. The first two roosters are still at large. This rooster and a duck were caught.


Lynda Wood of Port Neches holds Skippy, 2, (left) and Jojo, 4, (right) as they watch horses during the Mardi Gras opening Courir Parade in Port Arthur.