beads

With the Lafayette Mardi Gras celebrations underway, we know what many of you have on your mind.

France may have originated the idea of Mardi Gras in 1294, but New Orleans perfected it.

Even though the state is experiencing record-high infection numbers nearly every day now - officials in the south east Texas town are full steam ahead with their Mardi Gras plans.

The parades have finished rolling and the Hurricane ride is packed up on the truck, all that's left of Mardi Gras are the headaches and the beads.

Cotton is accused of throwing beads from the float during the parade and hitting a K-9 officer

Tons of beads are collected from the prade routes. Then they are cleaned to be used for the following carnival season.

The royalty for the ball is King Oscar I (Randall Mann), and Queen Emmy I (Pam DeVille). We sat down with them for a little question-and-answer session, and here's how it went!

After you catch all those Mardi Gras beads, what are you going to do with them?  DONATE THEM!!  Arc of Acadiana is having a Mardi Gras Bead Drive...

Here are a few of the sights and scenes that made Mardi Gras 2013.

They aren't worth much monetarily, but they are sentimental.

Every Mardi Gras it's the same thing - 'Let's see how many beads we can catch!', followed by 'what the heck do we do with all these beads?' Some creative artsy-types have found a great use for those colorful Mardi Gras trinkets, as a palette for their artistic endeavors...

Don't trash your beads!