Good morning world and Happy Mardi Gras. I understand for many of you today is just Tuesday but for us in greater New Orleans area, across south Louisiana, the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Mobile Alabama, it is indeed Mardi Gras, literally translated Fat Tuesday! We tend to misuse the words, Mardi Gras, as if it is the season and not the actual day. The season that begins on Kings Day, the Epiphany, January 6th is also the beginning of the Carnival season which runs until Mardi Gras day. That day fluctuates as it is directly tied to Easter so I believe Mardi Gras could be as early as February 3rd and as late as March 9th. With my birthday falling on March 4, Mardi Gras has occurred a few times on my birthday.
Today in New Orleans is the great climax of the Carnival season. Historic parades named Zulu and Rex, the King of Carnival, parade through the streets, followed by a hundred or more decorated truck floats manned by families and friends. Parades also march in the suburbs, over here where I live on the Northshore, across the Gulf Coast and Mobile. In Cajun land, more southwest in Louisiana, they ride on horseback through the towns and villages gathering ingredients to make a gumbo. Sadly, the authorities allow full scale debauchery to go on later today in the French Quarter which I feel is a huge black eye for Mardi Gras and the city of New Orleans.
At midnight, the police symbolically walks through the French Quarter accompanied by street cleaning machines and announcing quite loudly that Mardi Gras is over, go home. We all know no one goes home. And then Wednesday dawns and it is Ash Wednesday, Lent has begun. Believe it or not, thousands who were partying for a month including Fat Tuesday will shake it off, get to church and accept ashes. They, along with all of us, transition from feast to fast.
For my wife and me, this day has become one of two things; we have used the holiday to travel to North Carolina several times or, if home, use the day as an opportunity to catch up on rest and relaxation. We have had so much rain lately that there is really nothing to do outside so we have hunkered in for the day. Even though we should not, we have a little King Cake to celebrate, the parades and festivities are on all the local TV stations and this year, for an extra measure of good news, we can watch all the Olympics we can stand.
So Happy Mardi Gras from us in south Louisiana, enjoy your Tuesday! And let's all get prepared for Ash Wednesday!
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