For over a century, the Mistick Krewe of Comus has helped bring closure to Carnival, first with its old-line Mardi Gras night parade (which left the streets in 1991), and then its classic tableaux ball and annual Meeting of the Courts of Comus and Rex.

The invitation to the 1898 Mistick Krewe of Comus ball. Image courtesy Henri Schindler.

Last year, Comus was rightfully credited for its role in starting, and not closing, the Carnival celebration.  That's because it was 150 years when the Mistick Krewe paraded on February 24, 1857, forever changing the cultural and artistic scene of the city in which it was born, as New Orleans' first organized Carnival organization.

Its role in Carnival history is so fundamental that Comus' founders can even take credit for the word 'krewe,' the Old English-styled term which almost all parading organizations have since adopted.

Comus was also the first krewe to form a secret Carnival society (orginally made up of several former residents of Mobile, Alabama), and to adopt a mythological namesake (the Greek god of festive mirth).

The krewe is also the originator of the themed parade, with floats and costumed maskers (its first theme was "The Demon Actors of Milton's Paradise Lost"), and of the Carnival tableaux, in which scenes depicting the theme are presented.  

In the century and a half that followed, Comus would see the Carnival celebration that it helped organize and encourage grow to include dozens of other parades, including the first day parade, Rex, and countless other parades in the city and the suburbs following in its footsteps.  Comus would, up until its last parade in 1991 (the krewe stopped parading as a result of the city's anti-discrimination ordinance), continue to present a parade reminiscent of its 19th century roots, with beautifully designed floats rolling on chassis transported via old wagon wheels and lit by flambeaux.  It was a parade where many believed what throws you caught were not nearly as important as what you saw: a street procession like one you would have seen a hundred years ago.  While, to many, its parades have become only a memory, Comus' contributions to the New Orleans' Carnival continue and, from a historical perspective, cannot be understated.