Parade, gala celebrate birthday of city's founder

Publication Date: 03/01/09

Though Pedro Menendez has been dead for more than 430 years, his birthday still marks one of the biggest parties in St. Augustine, the city he founded nearly 450 years ago.

On Saturday evening, re-enactors donning their 16th-century best marched to the LightnerMuseum, where bigwigs in tuxedos and gowns were mingling before their $185-a-plate gala.

The dozens of re-enactors started their procession at the Government House. Over and over, they sang, "Laudate Dominum," Latin for, "Praise the Lord."

Some carried oversized papier-mche heads, swords or flowers while others played flutes or guitars as they walked through crowds of tourists.

It wasn't that easy for Garth Gardner. Dressed as a jester, Gardner gingerly stepped so not to fall over on his 4-foot-tall stilts.

Approaching the Lightner, he said, "I can't wait for the steps." Once he made it, the partygoers gave him a polite round of applause.

The proceeds from the event are going toward restoring a few historic fountains around town. But the tourists had plenty to look at already Saturday.

"This is so cool," a woman said, after a girl in the procession handed her a yellow flower.