Color Me Festive ... and a Little Bit Blind
As I briefly mentioned a couple of days ago, the city has begun its annual draping of bright, gem-toned, somewhat abrasive, but impossible to miss colors. Mardi Gras season is in our hearts all year 'round, but this is the time when the spirit is tangible and almost a little blinding.
The brightest color of all, often inexpensively represented by a jarring LSU yellow (which I'll get to in a hot minute), makes up the first of the three hues in the Mardi Gras color scheme. It stands for gold, which in turn stands for power, as dictated in 1892, when all three colors were assigned their meanings. Incidentally, the colors were chosen before the symbolisms were, but that's pretty expected for a city that likes to swim against the current.
Anyway, the official colors of Louisiana State University, alma mater of an unbelieveable amount of people in this region, were actually taken from the official Mardi Gras colors, which were chosen by Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovitch Monaoff of Russia when he visited our fairy city in 1872. The scheme was made official when the meanings were assigned two decades later by the Krewe of Rex, who had chosen for their theme that year, "Symbolism of Colors." LSU chose to supplement this color with the purple of royalty, or in New Orleans, the purple of justice.
(Author's note and disclaimer: However, as a Tulane alumna and therefore "sworn enemy" of LSU, I'd like to say with tongue in cheek, please don't blame Mardi Gras for the godawful shades chosen by that school. Please. We know it's bad, they know it's bad, but bastardization can happen to anything, including, apparently, colors.)
This college is not the only institution to have drawn its branding inspiration from the event that is most associated with the Big Easy. Tulane University takes its forest green of faith from the Mardi Gras flag as well, which leads to a funny story I found online on Wikipedia:
According to lore, fans of Louisiana State University, prior to a match against Tulane in New Orleans, sought a color to purchase while in the City. As purple, green and gold were prominent in the city, the LSU fans bought purple and gold as it wasn't green and would later adopt the colors as their official colors. Before and during Mardi Gras, purple, green, and gold fabric is certainly abundant.
Either way, as obnoxiously bold, subtly gem-toned, beautifully metallic, or tackily bright as the colors may be shown, they're still a sight for sore eyes and partygoers. And as long as New Orleans is above water, they'll continue to cover the city every year.
Laissez les bon temps rouler!