LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — Two layers of wire, buttons or googly eyes with bushy eyelashes, felt lips and a large fabric nose with a bell. Traditional Courir de Mardi Gras masks often follow this general pattern, but they can have many variations, often dependent on the creator’s ingenuity.
That’s something Jackie Miller has in spades.
Miller, 82, has been making traditional masks for almost 40 years, and no two of her masks have been the same, she said. She has also been teaching generations of children how to make Courir de Mardi Gras masks.
Miller makes masks for Tee Mamou-Iota, one of the courirs in rural south Louisana. Courir de Mardi Gras, Louisiana French for “Fat Tuesday Run,” is a Mardi Gras event traditional to southwest Louisiana, especially Acadiana. Courirs usually involve a group of men pursuing live chickens that would be used in a gumbo.
Growing up in the small Acadian town, Miller watched the annual Tee Mamou courir in Iota. She remembers when the Mardi Gras would come to her school and perform for the children, bringing a mixture of fear, excitement and wonder.
Her family didn’t participate but she got her first taste of rural Mardi Gras when she met her husband, another Iota local, who had participated in the run for years. Once Miller was married into a courir family, she became more interested and started making masks.
Masks have been a major part of the Mardi Gras festivities for as long as it has been celebrated. To protect their identities and pride, celebrants wear masks as they drink and eat heavily on Mardi Gras, the final day before Lent. Costumes allow participants to parody authority figures, the educated and society.
In the 1980s, Miller’s sons started participating in the annual Tee Mamou run, where hand-made masks are required, so she started making traditional masks, hats and outfits she said.
“My boys started running Mardi Gras and I made (masks) for them and then, of course, all their friends wanted them and it just rolls from there,” she said. “And then I started making them for the festival and going to the festival. And then selling them to the Mardi Gras’.”
Now she makes at least 60 masks for the Mardi Gras season. And no two are alike.
“It’s the frames that are hard to make because they have to be double screened, and put together in a certain way,” Miller said. “But after that, they’re fun.”
Courir masks were originally made with wire mesh from window screens so the wearers can see out but observers can’t discern the wearer’s identity. Other materials like horsehair, pine cones, spools, coal, or moss were initially used Miller said. Added to masks are large protrusive noses and painted or glued on features like eyes and mouths. Costumes and masks can include animal features like beaks, feathers, hair, fur or tails.
Tee Mamou is a small town outside of Iota, though the route of the courir ends in Iota hence the names being put together for the courir. The run has been around since Cajuns moved to the area Miller said.
The celebration’s origins are founded in medieval French rituals, specifically the fête de la quémande, “feast of begging.” Food supplies were short after long winters, causing disguised poor to travel in groups to beg for food from the wealthy, dancing and singing in return for the generosity of the nobles.
Most courir’s follow similar rules — chasing chickens, traveling to gather gumbo ingredients, parades — Tee Mamou-Iota has specific songs and dances performed throughout Fat Tuesday that runners must know in order to participate. They also don’t ride on horseback, instead traveling in wagons.
“It keeps the culture going and the rowdiness down,” she said. “Not that they’re not rowdy, cause they’re rowdy, but it keeps it a family thing.”
As Tee Mamou’s courir comes to an end and runners ride into town on a wagon, they gather on a stage with the capitaine to sing their version of the Chanson de Mardi Gras, aka The Mardi Gras song Miller said. And then they break out into dance. The traditional tune is sung by the participants, although the exact lyrics vary from town to town.
These skits symbolize the kind of entertainment beggers would perform for noblemen.
All participants, men, women and children alike, are also required to be in traditional Mardi Gras outfits from head to toe. And Miller has them covered.
She makes about 25 traditional costumes a year, which are a two-piece set patterned after men’s pajamas and a capuchon — a pointy hat meant to mock royalty fashion. She estimated it takes her about a day and a half to complete a set.
Early on, word got around of her costume skills and she started getting requests from far and wide. Calls came in from all around Acadiana and eventually out of state — as far as New Hampshire.
A northeast couple sent her a picture of her handiwork in the snow with their costumes on making Mardi Gras snow angels she said.
In her mask-making classes at Teche Center for the Arts, Miller encourages students to decorate at will. Pompoms become eyes, cloth becomes ears, and trinkets become mouths.
“I show them mine but I say ‘These are mine. They’re not yours. When you make it, it’s going to be a reflection of yourself not of me,‘” she said. “And it’s surprising what they come up with. I really enjoy seeing it.”
On Feb. 6 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., Miller will be sharing her skills in a class for children at Teche Center for the Arts in Breaux Bridge. From the class, she hopes attendants express themselves creatively and learn about the unique history of Acadian’s Mardi Gras.
Registration is required, and class size is limited to 15 students. The class fee is $35 and all materials are included. Register here.
Despite fabricating hundreds of masks and costumes over four decades, Miller loves what she does.
“In our later years, our ambition or goal is to help keep the traditions going and not lose our culture,” she said. ” ... I enjoy doing it. And people say ‘Why do you do that? It’s a lot of work.’ and I say ‘Because I like to.’ I certainly do not have to do it, but I like to do it. Sometimes, you know, I’m kinda under pressure. But I do it because I like to, when I do not like it anymore I’ll quit.”
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