The New Orleans football team, The Saints, were playing at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome today. At 10am there were people everywhere, many walking around with a beer in hand, the pubs were full & tailgate parties were in full swing. Opposite the stadium was a car park where tents had been erected & a rock band was playing. Most people were wearing a jersey or t-shirt in their team colours. The traffic was horrendous getting out of the city until we passed the stadium. The line of traffic coming into the city was miles long. They take their sport very seriously in America.
The drive to Houston,Texas was about 5hrs or so. What we noticed as we drove through Louisiana was the amount of water. We drove over a lot of bridges & saw lots of water close to the sides of the road. It must flood very easily. We wondered how many of these waterways had alligators in them. When we were on the way to the gator park on Friday, our driver told us gators do cross the road from time to time to change canals. They have right of way & vehicles must stop for them.
The fleur-de-lis symbol is all over New Orleans. It was originally used to represent French Royalty & had been said to mean light, life & perfection.
The Saints football team have had it on their team jerseys for over 40yrs.
Since Hurricane Katrina, the fleur-de-lis has increased in popularity. It has become the symbol of rebuilding & hope - a visual symbol to unite the people of New Orleans. It has become the city's official symbol & now appears on their flag, the police uniform & all over the city. It is available on just about every souvenir in the shops- t shirts, bags, jewellery, stickers & belt buckles.
When we went on the carriage ride, our driver took us through the streets of the French Quarter & just below. He pointed out mansions that we wouldn't have noticed. One took up a whole block, recognizable because it was all painted in the same color. A single elderly woman lives in there. We could see through some of the wrought iron fences surrounding the properties & could see lots of lovely courtyards & pools. We didn't expect to see them.
We passed a 3 storey mansion on Royal St with a horrific past.
It was built in 1832 by Delphine LaLaurie & her husband Leonard. Delphine was wealthy in her own right & bought & built the mansion just in her name. She had slave quarters attached to house her black slaves. They moved in high social circles & liked to host lavish dinner parties. Delphine liked to make an entrance by arriving late.
In 1834, she was getting ready for one of her parties when the slave girl brushing her hair hit a knot. There are 2 different versions of what happened next. One is Delphine was so enraged she immediately whipped the slave girl to death. The other is the girl died when she fell off the mansion roof as she was trying to escape being whipped.
There had been plenty of rumors about Delphine's cruelty towards her slaves but visits by authorities had never found anything amiss.
She kept her cook chained to the stove & on this party night, the cook was so sick of the beatings & cruelty towards the slaves, she set fire to the kitchen. When rescuers arrived they found up to 7 slaves chained up in the attic, all had been tortured. Reports state one woman was wearing an iron collar, males naked with eyes gouged out, others with lips shown shut, one whose limbs had been broken & reset at off angles so she resembled a crab & one with her arms amputated. Reports show 2 bodies were found buried in the yard - one of them a child.
The public stormed the mansion when they learned of the cruelty & virtually destroyed all but the walls. The LaLauries fled & were never brought to justice over their inhumane crimes.
The house is now apartments & are said to be haunted.
There is a lot of voodoo around New Orleans. It was brought to Louisiana by the Haitians & Africans back in the 1700s. They had a lot of traditions involving spirit & ancestor worship which the slaves continued.
In the19th century voodoo Queens presided over ceremonial meetings & ritual dances. They earned an income by administering charms, magic powers to heal ailments & grant desires.
The prominent voodoo Queen in New Orleans was Marie Laveau. Once news of her powers spread, she overthrew other voodoo Queens. Laveau was a devout Catholic & encouraged her followers to attend mass. Her Catholic beliefs were incorporated into the voodoo practices.
She is remembered for her compassion towards the less fortunate. Every year thousands of people flock to her grave to ask for favours. Pound cake is left at the statue of Saint Expedite which is across the road from the cemetery to expedite the granting of favours. It is said that the grave of Marie Laveau has more visitors each year than the grave of Elvis Presley.
It was late afternoon when we arrived in Houston. The hotel has a guest laundry so we did some washing & have spent the night in watching the Emmys. It was good to have a rest. Tomorrow we are going to the Space Museum.