Friday, March 18, 2016

Detroit's Red Dwarf

(Kate Cho photo)
I've been waiting almost a year to tell you about the Marche du Nain Rouge in Detroit, MI. According to legend, back in 1701 the man who founded Detroit, Michigan met with a fortune teller who told him that a red dwarf (le nain rouge) would cause him great troubles. (The nain rouge is a menacing little devil whose story is believed to have originated in Normandy, France.) As luck would have it, the settler of Detroit, Antoine de la Moth Cadillac, was French and absolutely heeded the fortune teller's warning.

Antoine is believed to have been attacked by the nain rouge and so he high-tailed it back to France, but that didn't stop Detroit from flourishing. Sighting of the nain rouge continue to this day and it's believe he stirs up trouble where ever he goes. To combat this evil menace, the city of Detroit hosts the annual Marche du Nain Rouge. It sounds awesome. Residents make floats and wear costumes and parade through town chasing the red dwarf away for another year. The parade lasts several hours and everyone is encouraged to bring a stick to beat back the nain rouge. There are official party sites the week leading up to the parade too. Most of those seem to happen in bars, so you can understand my fascination. This year the parade takes place on March 20th. We still have time to get there.

(Kate Cho photo)

In my tradition of if you can't be there buy something that looks like you were I'll send you over to  Etsy for some official looking t-shirts.

The20sixth
Citybird
Citybird
Citybird
I wish my town had an evil demon we could chase away every year....

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