Far off the St. Charles Parade route, before the sun rises on Mardi Gras day, Treme is awake.
The Northside Skull and Bone Gang has been waking up the neighborhood on Mardi Gras morning for more than 200 years now. A tradition started by enslaved Africans in 1819 and carried on proudly by Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes.
“We don’t have a set route,” Barnes said. “We’re not a parade it’s a procession so we just let the spirit guide the day, but we will wake up this neighborhood and the rest of the world to a Carnival morning.”
Dressed as skeletons, the Skull and Bone Gang honor the dead while celebrating how precious life is. They sing and chant as they move through the neighborhood, warning people to live right or they could be next.
“You better get your, your life together, when you see us, it’s too late to cry,” one song goes.
“Most of the songs that we sing and chant now are songs that just came to me in dreams really,” Barnes said. “We speak out about mortality in general because you only get one life in this form and it’s to be respected.”