An Editorial

It's Carnival Time!!

Mardi Gras is such an interesting and exciting holiday! Best of all, the rest of North America doesn't get it. So Mardi Gras, that is celebrated across the globe, is pretty much left to south Louisiana in our country.

Of course, Mardi Gras is actually a very old church holiday that is capable of providing totally devastating lessons to us about the sin of gluttony. It is a very somber group that gathers at the church on Ash Wednesday after over imbibing on Fat Tuesday. No doubt many of us, when reminded that we come from dust and that to dust we shall return as the ashes were applied to our foreheads, have felt as though it would not be long before that happened.

Growing up in New Orleans, Mardi Gras was a highlight of each year similar in importance to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Going to the parades in the weeks leading up to the big day was great fun, especially the night parades with the exciting flambeau and their smoking torches and the beautifully lighted floats pulled by mules and then later by tractors.

The float riders were your parents or the parents of your school chums and you had to know that Uncle Joe was on float 12 and that he would be the first rider on the “neutral ground� (median) side. When you screamed out his name he would recognize you through his mask and drop down into your hands one of his special packages of the most beautiful and most expensive beads and trinkets.

It was so exciting when your parents dressed in tux and evening gown to attend one of the big Mardi Gras Balls. In your teen years you attended a few lessons at the Arthur Murray School of Dance before donning your first rented tux so you could be a “call out� at one of the ladies krewe's balls.

Being a call out meant you were selected to dance one of the special call out dances with a member of the krewe. You were literally called out of your seat by one of the officials assigned to assist the krewe in getting their call out dance partners to the floor in time for the next song the orchestra would play. This was a very big deal for a fourteen or fifteen-year-old, and an important rite of passage for young men and women growing up in the Crescent City.

For several years my dad, a dedicated member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, was the volunteer chairman of the committee that lined up the trucks that follow the Rex parade on Mardi Gras Day. Known as the Krewe of Orleanians, this parade consists of over 100 flat-bed 18-wheelers decorated by a similarly costumed group of friends and/or neighbors who spend Fat Tuesday riding through the streets throwing beads and trinkets to the crowd. It was 4:30 a.m. on Mardi Gras morning as I hung onto my dad's hand and he yelled “Charlie, Charlie...tell number 68 they go right here!�

A true highlight of my childhood was meeting William Boyd A/K/A Hopalong Cassidy in 1950 when he was the Grand Marshall for the Krewe of Orleanians. He shook my hand and I actually got to pet his horse Topper.

For many tourists Mardi Gras is just a blur of craziness, but for many community leaders and people from all walks of life in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, New Roads, Ville Platte, and all across the southern half of our state it is a time for celebrating who we are. Louisiana has such a rich heritage and it is with an eye toward fun and civic duty and community pride that the traditions of Mardi Gras are handed from generation to generation.

Mardi Gras is an annual party we throw for ourselves just because it is a whole lot of fun to celebrate our unique culture! For you it can be just as calm and sedate as you choose, and you can put on your finest clothes and attend a beautiful Mardi Gras Ball. Alternatively, you can choose to venture down to Bourbon Street on Mardi Gras Day and get just as wild as you please.

Only thing is, though, you don't want to forget that tomorrow morning will be Ash Wednesday and time to go get your ashes and begin those forty days of Lent!