The Economy of Mardi Gras Beads
Oct 20th, 2011 by admin
People read about and see images of Mardi Gras beads all the time as Fat Tuesday rolls around the corner, but few people realize exactly how valuable those little plastic balls can become during festival season. Despite costing no more than a dime before the carnival begins, once it is going people will lose all sense of decency and common sense to secure as many shiny necklaces as possible before the party stops.
Surprisingly–or perhaps not very surprisingly–one local newspaper put in the legwork and realized that the cheap beads actually form the basis of a festival currency for a couple of weeks each year. In addition to buying you perhaps the most foolish style in history, or a glimpse of feminine nudity, these beads are used to barter and trade a whole variety of festival ‘throws’ that are received from the krewes of parade floats. For example, the newspaper found that five strands of Mardi Gras beads could be bartered for a single moon pie. In turn, two moon pies could be traded for one big strand of beads (and two of those for a single football, etc). These exchanges go all the way up to large stuffed animals, for which full blown brawls have been known to break out over claims of ownership.
So the next time you attend a Mardi Gras themed party remember that those cheap 10 cent beads you are wearing are worth a moon pie (or black eye) in Louisiana once a year. Perhaps it is worth saving up in order to cash in for all sorts of blinky things and brightly colored stuffed bears…or just hang them from a nail in the wall and forget about them. After all, they’re just cheap plastic.