By Michelle Krupa, CNN
(CNN)When New Orleans’ mayor announced that the city’s legendary Carnival parades would be canceled on account of Covid-19, Megan Boudreaux wasn’t surprised.
Like so many, the mom and insurance manager had known in her gut that the weekslong fête would take 2021 off. Revelers of all ages packed at least three deep along routes that wind for miles seemed the textbook antithesis of social distancing.
“So, I kinda made a comment: ‘Well, that’s fine, I’m just going to decorate my house,'” said Boudreaux, who invited her neighbors to turn their homes, too, into stationary versions of the ornately designed floats that populate the four dozen or so parades that roll in the city each year. This way, she figured, partiers could stay 6 feet apart while visiting outdoors and enjoying the artistry of the annual countdown to Lent.
The idea, like a splay of bead strands hurled skyward toward an endless carousing crowd, has spread.
Nearly three months and 3,000 house floats later, Boudreaux said last week, “here we are,” with homes across New Orleans and its suburbs — even some as far away as Luxembourg and the United Arab Emirates — dolled up for the inaugural Krewe of House Floats, this ever-resilient city’s answer to a deadly pandemic threat.
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