As many of you may be aware, it is time for the annual Mardi Gras celebrations. Many of us associate Mardi Gras with New Orleans, where possibly the largest festivities occur; however, many other cities join in celebrating the days leading up to the season of Lent.
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| New Orleans Mardi Gras Parade ibtimes.com |
If you have never participated in Mardi Gras in a small town, you have missed a totally different experience. Although the parades may be more numerous and some more flamboyant in New Orleans, the celebrations are equally as festive and definitely more family-oriented in the smaller cities. Mardi Gras customs can be traced back to Medieval Catholic Europeans, with the large population of Acadian Catholics in Louisiana continuing these rich traditions in many small parish towns.
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| Mardi Gras Mummers visitportarthur.com |
Where I live, here in Southeast Texas, through the influence of our large Cajun and Creole population, the weekend before Lent is one long community celebration. The festivities begin Thursday evening with a "chicken run," or Courir de Mardi Gras. This event is a parade of costumed participants traveling on horseback, symbolically gathering the ingredients for a gumbo. The parade ends with young onlookers engaging in a foot chase for a live chicken, allegedly to be used in this rich Cajun "soup."
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| Chicken Run beaumontenterprise.com |
The remainder of the weekend is similar to the typical New Orleans carnival atmosphere consisting of live music, numerous parades with marching bands and beautifully decorated floats carrying Krewe members throwing beads and doubloons, and, of course, lots of food and alcoholic beverages. However, here, as in many of the smaller cities and towns, the participants often consist of entire families, including young children. The atmosphere is friendlier and less rowdy...I give it a G- or, at most, a PG-rating. It is a community party we look forward to every year.
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Krewe of Aurora Parade visitportarthur.com |
When I bring my grandchildren to watch their parents participate in the Friday night parade, I will be adorned in the traditional Mardi Gras colors of purple, green and gold, but with a FrenchiGrace twist.
I hope you will have the opportunity to celebrate the occasion of Mardi Gras, if only by raising a glass of bubbly or indulging in a favorite food in anticipation of the ritual of fasting during the Lenten season. Laissez les bons temps rouler.
Adieu,
