We celebrate a holiday that the rest of the country doesn’t recognize. We produce a cake the rest of the country doesn’t eat. This is the place to be the few days before Fat Tuesday. But who made the parades and the season as we know them possible? The flambeaux carriers have been dancing and lighting the routes since the modern parade’s inception.These torch-bearers date back to 1857, when the Krewe of Comus ran the first parade at night. The city, obviously lacking electric lighting, was short on gas-burning street fixtures as well. In order to compensate for the lack of lighting, several hundred flaming torches known as flambeaux were brought to light the way. They are still carried in much the same fashion as they were carried 150 years ago. Traditionally, the flambeaux carriers were black men dressed in white robes who were tossed coins from the crowd as the parade progressed. Later, the Krewes began to pay the flambeaux carriers for their services.Ricardo Burnhardt and Charlie Brown, both 20-year veterans of the carriers, have seen things change slightly.”It was $10[pay] at one time, then went up to 15. Now it’s 20. But what [change] you pick up on the way down, that’s the fun of it,” Burnhardt said.The flambeaux became more tradition than necessity after the floats started to have lights on them. “Years ago, in the ’70s, back when it still ran with horse and wagon… you had four of us lighting floats on both sides, when they had no lights on the float,” Brown said. “They’ve modernized it now.” “A lot of times they call you on the side to give you the money instead of throwing it down,” Burnhardt said. A long time ago they used to fight over it. That’s when they slowed [the flambeaux carriers] down, because the floats were catching on fire. So now they try to… put you at the back [of the floats].”The parades that still use flambeaux are the Krewes of Babylon, Hermes, Momus, Endymion, Bacchus, Druids and Morpheus. There are a few requirements that the flambeaux carriers must meet. According to Burnhardt, traditionally, but not always, the carriers are black. There is no carrying under the influence of alcohol.”They don’t hire you if you’re drunk,” he said. “If you’re drunk or you smell like you have been drinking, they ain’t going to let you tote it.”How does one come to be a flambeaux carrier? There are no designated carriers, but there are places that one goes to be hired before each parade. “They always have the sign up. That’s just the tradition that they put the sign up so you know the spot to come to. They have different spots to come out to [each parade],” said Darryl Royal, who has been walking with the parades for 15 years.They carry on tradition, dancing with the flaming torches held high. No matter the weather conditions, if the parade runs, the flambeaux carriers walk. “I like it better than watching the parades. It brings me into the Mardi Gras season. In the wet, in the rain, in the cold, we are there,” Burnhardt said. “I love it.”