Mardi Gras

We drove into Slidell to have lunch...hey look, I think there is going to be a parade.

Little did I know, there are parades in several of the towns...and many of them, until the culmination of the "real" Mardi Gras in New Orleans on Fat Tuesday, February 9th. Hey, I'm learning!!!

I mentioned King Cake in the last post, but I want to expound on it. King Cakes are a tradition...they start selling them in December and you can buy them up until Mardi Gras ends. They have a religious connotation representing the three kings at the birth of Jesus Christ. They are formed to make a circle, the crown, with gem-like sugar crystals sprinkled on top in the three colors of Mardi Gras. There is a plastic baby that gets placed inside the cake (Christ child), and whoever gets that piece of cake brings the next years cake for the party. The three colors are purple (justice), green (faith), and gold (power). These are the official colors since 1872. They were the family colors of the Russian Grand Duke Alexis Alexandrovich Romanoff.

 Rex (King of Carnival), presides over day parades. This is King Dionysis XXXI.

 Mardi Gras...the Greatest Free Show on Earth."
It is a celebration period before fasting season of Lent.

This is where we stationed ourselves...on the corner of Gause and Front street. A really great place because our exit was EASY.

I thought this horse was beautiful.

You will notice the mask. Everyone on the float is supposed to wear a mask and they are known as the Krewe (crew). You pay for membership to be a part of the krewe and they each pay for all the beads etc. they throw...known as throws.

Footballs were being thrown and I asked Wallace to catch one for our grandson, Joaquin. He was successful.

I was trying to catch all three colors of Mardi Gras and finally came up with all three colors.

The white pearls are supposed to be a rare catch and I even have one of those.

Notice this one..."PIMP."

I asked for this one from the float and caught it.

We stood for 5 hours and had a blast.



I always thought of Mardi Gras as a one nighter where everyone got drunk and had brawls. There is a lot of tradition tied to this celebration that we have learned, just passing down a few to you.

Until next time...