kayaking on Loch Leven near Glencoe, Scotland, 2018

kayaking on Loch Leven near Glencoe, Scotland, 2018

Friday, January 11, 2013

Flashback Friday -- Mardi Gras Season

Well, it's Mardi Gras time again. When I first moved here (going on 6 years now!), the reality of Mardi Gras was the biggest revelation to this uninformed Yankee. I was curious about the colorful customs and fascinated by how entrenched Mardi Gras tradtitions are in Louisiana culture.

Here is a post from January 2010, when I was still a bit more wide-eyed over the concept. Amy is a reader from Pittsburgh who had asked me to explain Mardi Gras to her. Northerners truly have no inkling of the magnitude of Mardi Gras in Louisiana. Even though I am surrounded by it and am now accustomed to it, I have not embraced it. Honestly, it would exhaust me. And I don't wear high heels. But I do have a purple, green, and gold wreath on my front door.



 

3 comments:

Melanie Rigney said...

Ah, come on! Try the heels this year!!! :)

Common Household Mom said...

The Mardi Gras season has already begun? That's wild. I saw that one of the commenters on your 2010 post mentioned Contraband Days. Maybe someday you can explain that to us northerners. Is it a celebration of the Whiskey Rebellion?

Angie said...

Ha, CHM. Contraband Days is a pirate festival, specifically celebrating the infamous pirate Jean LaFitte. He and his band of merry privateers knew the hidden bayous between New Orleans and Galveston like the back of their hands, and legend has it, they buried treasure in these parts. Yes, Mardi Gras season begins each year on 12th Night, or Epiphany, as we Presbyterians call it. And ends on Fat Tuesday.