Throw Me Something Mister!!!

We're no longer Mardi Gras virgins!!!! J and I went to our first Mardi Gras parade today! We had SO much fun, more fun than we thought we'd have. See, neither of us are "party" people. We're good, church-going folk who like to have a good time, but we're very conservative, so to attend a Mardi Gras parade was pretty out of character for us. Of course, we didn't go to a parade in New Orleans. We had to start small. So we went to the Spanish Town Parade here in Baton Rouge. This parade is easily the best one here in town and draws quite the diverse crowd, but it has more of a family atmosphere if you know what I mean.

Mardi Gras is a celebration so huge in Louisiana that school is actually out for a few days! Can you believe that? As a former teacher from Texas that was so strange to me, but I can see where they would rather give the students the holiday rather than having half empty classrooms.

It's amazing how crazy people get when the people on the floats start throwing the colorful beads into the crowd. Beads that are so cheap, but put huge smiles on people's faces when they catch them. J played it cool at first. Just standing behind me enjoying the atmosphere, and watching me stock up on all kinds of beads. But, it didn't take him long to get into the groove and start going for the beads that were thrown in his direction. In fact, I think it surprised him how fun it actually was to catch them. He says he started catching them so they wouldn't hit him in the face, but I really think he wanted to get into the spirit of Mardi Gras, and the only way to do that was to throw his hands up and catch the beads that came his way.

So what do you do with over a hundred strands of beads? We decided to keep a few as a souvenir of our first Mardi Gras parade, but the others are going to mailed to our nieces and nephew back in Texas. We know they'll enjoy getting them in the mail and playing dress up with them.

Here's a little Mardi Gras History for you...

• Though its exact origins are subject to debate, the celebration known as Carnival came to be associated with Judeo-Christian tradition. In its earliest usage in medieval Europe, the Latin word carnelevare, from which "carnival" is derived (literally meaning "to lift up" or relieve from "flesh" or "meat"), may have referred to the beginning of the Lenten season of atonement and abstinence rather than the festive holiday customs that preceded Lent. In any case, over time it became established as the season of merriment that begins on the feast of the Epiphany (Jan. 6), also known as Kings' Day or Twelfth Night (it’s the twelfth day of Christmas, the day the gift-bearing Magi visited the Christ child).


• The Mardi Gras season begins on January 6 and continues until Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, which is always 47 days before Easter.


• Because the day before Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, was one of feasting—as symbolized by the ritual slaughter of a fatted bull or ox (boeuf gras)—it came to be known as Fat Tuesday or, as the French would say, Mardi Gras, which occurred on any Tuesday from Feb. 3 through March 9.


• The official colors for Mardi Gras are purple, green, and gold. These colors were chosen in 1872 by the King of Carnival, Rex. He chose these colors to stand for the following: Purple represents justice, green stands for faith, and gold stands for power.