Earn Your Beads!

It's Mardi Gras time!  Well, I'm not in New Orleans but I can celebrate, can't I?  I made a Mardi Gras supper (baked sausage and veggies and King Cake).  No red beans and rice because Steve doesn't like them.   I've been to New Orleans but not during Mardi Gras.  I know my sister Trudy, her daughter Amy, and my daughter Marie have. My friend Kathy Buxton Frey once sent us some beads and trinkets from the parade. That was special surprise. Being from the North, I don't really celebrate like they do in the South. There are parades, music, partying and feasting.  Of course, beads are everywhere!  Sometimes they are tossed off the parade floats.  (Or you can really find them anywhere.)   One way to get your beads is to show your chest to the person giving out the beads.
The colors associated with this celebration are purple representing justice, green representing faith, and gold representing power.  Then there's the King Cake.  A yeast bread decorated with sparkles of the traditional celebration colors and with a baby Jesus hidden inside.  Whomever gets the baby Jesus can expect good fortune until the next Mardi Gras and they get to host next year's celebration.  Mardi Gras occurs the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of the Lenten Season.

 Mardi Gras, also called Shrove Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday,in English, refers to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after the Christian feasts of the Epiphany (Three King's Day) and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday", reflecting the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season.

Popular practices on Mardi Gras include wearing masks and costumes, overturning social conventions, dancing, sports competitions, parades, debauchery, etc. Similar expressions to Mardi Gras appear in other European languages sharing the Christian tradition, as it is associated with the religious requirement for confession before Lent begins. In many areas, the term "Mardi Gras" has come to mean the whole period of activity related to the celebratory events, beyond just the single day. In some American cities, it is now called "Mardi Gras Day".

While not observed nationally throughout the United States, a number of traditionally ethnic French cities and regions in the country have notable celebrations. Mardi Gras arrived in North America as a French Catholic tradition with the Le Moyne brothers, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, in the late 17th century, when King Louis XIV sent the pair to defend France's claim on the territory of Louisiane, which included what are now the U.S. states of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and part of eastern Texas.

Jeff & Marie

I'd like to send out a Happy Birthday wish to our son-in-law, Jeff.  We hope he had a great day.  We look forward to seeing him and his family soon.  

             FINAL THOUGHTS......