The parade started to celebrate the cultures of the irish, italian and islenos. Back in the day, the irish had a parade in the 'Irish Channel' of the city and food was thrown to make your cabbage meal for st. Patty's. The parades have grown and they are throughout the metro area now, celebrating different cultures from those areas. Their are lots of irish and italian down here. And the Islenos' were the first settlers to St. Bernard Parish. They are originally from the Canary Islands. Coming up in about a month is the Islenos' Festival celebrating just them. With their food, music, dance, exhibits and family visiting from their original islands. Its a nice festival. Thats where the shrimp and grits come from. Yum

Everything you catch from this parade you clean and eat. We caught alot of ramen noodles and boxes of Domino's brown cinnamon sugar. Saving those things and bringing up to Tres' in a few weeks. He loved this parade.

Yeah you dont catch many beads at this parade. You get more trinkets.