Bella Bella looks forward to Mardi Gras

 

Mardi Gras! That means it’s party time!

Well, yes, though not literally.

In French, Mardi Gras means “Fat Tuesday.” For many Christians, Mardi Gras is the last day you can feast on rich, fatty food before Lent, a solemn 40-day period of prayer, fasting and deep thought in preparation for Easter Sunday. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday every year, 46 days before Easter.

Mardi Gras marks the end of Carnival season, a festive time that begins on the Twelfth Day of Christmas, or Epiphany: January 6^th.  Let’s do some arithmetic here … hmmm … Mardi Gras falls on February 21^st in 2012 (it’s not on the same date every year) … so … that equals over six weeks of parties and celebration this year! 

 

During the Carnival season, people organize parades and fancy-dress dances. This is a great way to brighten up wintertime.

 

Let me introduce a fine bear named Beaulieu, who hails from the city of Shreveport, Louisiana. Shreveport is on the Red River, in the northwestern corner of Louisiana. This area is sometimes called Ark-LA-Tex, since it’s near the states of Arkansas and Texas.

Louisiana, with its French Catholic heritage, is famous for Mardi Gras celebrations – especially in the metropolis of New Orleans. In fact, many cities and towns around the state hold great Mardi Gras events, including some towns we learned about recently from my friend Blanche: Lafayette, Eunice, and Opelousas.

Beaulieu tells me that Shreveport holds the second-biggest Mardi Gras celebration in Louisiana every year.

 

The parades and dances are put together by organizations called krewes (you say that the same way as “crew”).

Each krewe is a kind of social and benevolent club, often attached to specific jobs (doctors, lawyers, and so on) or interests. Krewes are busy all year long, doing good work for their communities.

 

Each krewe chooses a king and queen every year, and holds a formal ball. There are about a dozen krewes in Shreveport.

 

Mardi Gras parades and dances are famous for their amazing costumes.

These krewe nobility are showing off their costumes at the Krewe of Gemini’s Mardi Gras Museum in Bossier City, just across the Red River from Shreveport.

 

During parades, people riding on the parade floats toss necklaces of beads to the crowds watching. Beaulieu says that catching beads at parades during the Mardi Gras season can be competitive: if you catch one with your arm stretched out, you should clutch it to your chest before someone else grabs it. If beads fall on the ground, put a foot on them before bending over to pick them up!

The beads with medallions are “queen’s beads,” distributed by the queen of a krewe.

 

Beaulieu is letting me try on some of his collection of Mardi Gras beads. Gorgeous, eh?

  Another tradition at Mardi Gras is serving King Cake. These cakes were once used to choose the queen of a Mardi Gras ball. A tiny doll is cooked into every King Cake; whoever found it was the lucky one!

 

When King Cake is served among family or friends, whoever finds the doll is supposed to bring the cake next year, or host the next party.

 

In case you’re wondering, Beaulieu and I managed to eat two cakes (hey, they were little), and we each found a doll … so we’re even! Also stuffed.

 

Beaulieu saw how King Cakes are made at Julie Anne’s Bakery & Café in Shreveport. First you roll out the dough

 

And chop up pralines (candied nuts)

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Then you spread the dough with cream cheese, and sprinkle it with pralines

 Add a doll about two centimetres tall, roll up the dough, and shape it into a ring 

 

Once it’s baked, you ice the cake, and decorate in the traditional colours of Mardi Gras: purple (for justice), green (for faith), and yellow or gold (for power).

 

Yum!!

 

Have a great Mardi Gras, everyone, and “laissez les bons temps rouler!” Let the good times roll!

Story © S. Clouthier

Photos © S. Clouthier and D. Wei