Who says New Orleans is the place to be for whooping it up on Mardi Gras? Northeastern’s Boston campus held its own loud festivities to mark a tradition that traces its roots back thousands of years.

The tents on Robinson Quad  were awash in a party atmosphere with tables full of feathered masks, strings of colored beads, and noisemakers, all there for the taking. 

Meanwhile, long lines of students formed at the caricature artists’ tables to have their portraits sketched while others played an oversized version of the board game classic, “Operation.”

Except instead of carefully removing small body parts from the “patient,” students used a massive pair of tweezers to extricate rubber animals, a tennis ball, and a plastic ice cream cone.

Nearby, students erupted into laughter as they carefully placed wooden building blocks on top of  each other, only to see their work come crashing down into a pile on a table. Students could win a stuffed teddy bear with a “Mardi Gras Northeastern” T-shirt for their construction efforts.

The soundtrack of New Orleans blared clearly from one of the tents. A live quintet that included two saxophones and a tuba blasted out hits such as “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

Of course, no Mardi Gras celebration would be complete without a slice of the classic king cake, and there was no shortage of it. Dining service employees wheeled in racks of the sweet treat that is believed to have been brought over from France in the 1870s.

In recent years the cakes have often been served at New Orleans weddings as the groom’s cake. The circular desserts are made of braided dough, topped with white icing, and sprinkled with sugar toppings in the traditional Mardi Gras colors of purple, green, and gold.

 

A live quintet played toe-tapping favorites such as 'When the Saints Go Marching In.' Photos of Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

 

Each king cake has a tiny plastic baby baked into it. Some traditions used a coin or a bean.

“Please be aware that pieces of king cake may contain a plastic baby figurine,” read a sign on one of the tables in Robinson Quad. “The baby symbolizes luck and prosperity to whoever finds it in his/her slice of cake.”

Katie Isbell, a first-year law student, picked up one of the slices along with a headband and candy. “I’ve gone to Mardi Gras at Northeastern every year since I was a freshman,” said Isbell, who completed her undergraduate career in 2020 with a journalism degree. “I was so excited when I saw the flier about it because it feels like tradition.”

Masks, strings of colored beads, and headbands gave Robinson Quad a distinctive New Orleans feel. Photos by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Mardi Gras—French for “Fat Tuesday”—is celebrated on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent, the Christian tradition of 40 days marked by fasting and penance between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.

Brazil, Trinidad and other countries host some of the holiday’s most famous public festivities, drawing thousands of tourists and merry-makers every year.

Sebastian Caicedo, a first-year student from Houston who is undecided about his major, has never been to New Orleans, but decided to stop by Robinson Quad to take it all in. “I just wanted to see a different culture,” he said.

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