Living near the Galveston coast my entire life, I have become accustomed to the chaos that Mardi Gras brings every year. The traditions come naturally, whilst living around them for your whole life. Parades, and bead collecting are the most populous, no matter the age.  

The annual Mardi Gras parade was canceled due to obvious reasons. This year, Galveston Island would have been celebrating 110 years of Mardi Gars celebrations with the well-known parade on 25th street, coming from the seawall, turning at Pleasure Pier, and continuing all the way down the street, meeting thousands of people along the way.  

The floats were always something important to Galveston companies and societies. The array of floats is made up of all diverse types of people of varieties of ages. These volunteers pass beads and souvenirs out, or more so, throw them out, of their floats to the crowd waving their hands.  

The celebrations usually last for about five weekends; beginning at the end of January and ending towards the end of February. Sadly, and for all the reasons that 2020 brought in, everything has been cancelled. No more decorative floats, no more extravagant attire for the people on the floats. No more large crowds with people shoulder to shoulder, throwing their hands in the air, collecting beads. No more tailgating on the side of the road all day so your family can be as close as they can to the floats. Traditions have been broken this year, making it the first year in more than a century to cancel any of the plans pertaining Mardi Gras.  

Even if you live an hour’s way down the road from Galveston, you still know the importance that this historic holiday holds for Galveston. It is more of a big deal than one would think. So, if we ever do make it out of this, we must not take our traditional events for granted. Unfortunately, I believe that we took large celebrations filled with strangers for granted for years leading up to where we are now.