One of the first things I noticed when I moved to South Louisiana, was that as soon as the Christmas decorations come down, the purple, green and gold decorations go up; the colors of Mardis Gras. Some of the house decorations are exquisitly gorgeous. Since January, there have been parades 'rolling' in the New Orleans area. From then til now, the parades and festivities have gotten more numerous, growing and spreading to more parts of our state, and culminating, today, in a huge...HUGE party. All the local networks have 'wall-to-wall' coverage. People dress up in costumes over in New Orleans to attend the big parades and parties. The place runs riot til the stroke of midnight, when the season of Lent, reflection and repentance begins until Easter.
Actually, I'm only getting the information about the crazy goings on in the French Quarter in New Orleans, second-hand, from the television, and from folks who have attended the French Quarter Mardis Gras. I've never been to the 'Big Party', and am happy to go watch the family oriented parades in the surrounding areas. Ahhh....I dunno why, but, this year I haven't even done that. I have at least gotten the Gras (Fat) part of it, right. I made a jambalaya today, Tuesday , and have gotten no excercise. I've GOTTA do something, soon! Lately I've had Saturday Gras, Sunday Gras, Monday Gras,...December Gras, January Gras, so I was 'prepared' for Gras today. Sighhh. I like what Mark Twain said in 1884, "New Orleans food is as delicious as the less criminal forms of sin". Too danged true.
In case ya'll, especially our Yankee family and friends, would like to take a peek at Mardis Gras, here's a URL for you to click. From that, you can wander around their site looking at live parades on the 'CAMS', or look at pictures of the insane fun, find recipes...everything you can think of New Orleans. (If this link doesn't take you directly there, type it into your fav search engine and take off!
http://www.nola.com/
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