Head two hours outside of Mardi Gras’ iconic epicenter in New Orleans, and the celebrations look a little different. This is Cajun Country, aka the Acadiana region of Louisiana, where the Cajun communities here originally immigrated from French Canada in the 1700s. Their Mardi Gras traditions hark back to a time when locals didn’t have the means to partake in extravagant Fat Tuesday parties. So they would go house to house asking for ingredients for the big meal—and, not wanting to appear to beg or take handouts, they would don costumes and sing and dance along the way. That evolved into Courir de Mardi Gras, or Run of Mardi Gras. The Monday before Fat Tuesday, the local community puts on elaborate fringed costumes, masks, and cone-shaped hats called capuchons, and gathers for a day-long pig roast filled with live music, drinking, and chicken shit bingo that lasts through the night. As the sun rises, the “run” begins, with revelers hopping on horses, flatbed trailers, and wagons for ...