MARDI GRAS

[Pumpkin_Man]

I've never been to Mardi Gras, but I loved the French Quarter. I was there during the day time, and it was long before Mardi Gras.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

Oh, sure, under normal circumstances the French Quarter is the main place to go. I don't think this person even intended to keep people away from it altogether during Mardi Gras. He/she was just warning people not to go there late at night during Mardi Gras, not after the parades are done. And advising people like me that, if we want to see a parade, we need to go somewhere else, not there, because they don't do the parades in the French Quarter.

[Pumpkin_Man]

I tend to avoid the down town section of any major city at night time. One of the most fun places to be during the day time is Down Town Chicago. At night time, however, it's one of the most dangerous.

Mike

[Li H'Sen Chang]

I have hear Detroit is very deadly at night and most buildings there are full of vagrancies.

[Pumpkin_Man]

There are whole neighborhods in Detroit that are totaly abandoned, with only a few vagrants or crack dealors here and there. Detroit, from what I understand, can be dangerous any time, day or night.

Still, I would love to take a 'haunted road trip' there to some of those abandoned places as they look pretty creepy. There's something VERY CREEPY about an entire neighborhood being abaonded, in and of itself.

Mike

[Li H'Sen Chang]

I have been into and within the city of Detroit and always thought I might be killed.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Chang, you very well could be. Abandoned places can be fun, and there is a creepieness factor, but they are also magnates for drug pushers, gang bangers and other assorted scum, and Detroit is notorious for violent crime. Well, what could you expect when you CLOSE DOWN all the police precincts for 16 hours a day??? The sad thing is that there is also a very prosperous and positive side to Detroit. Detroit is STILL where most of the American made cars are made, and some truely great innovations are still comming out of Detroit Michigan. It's truely quite a dychotomy.

Mike

[Li H'Sen Chang]

Most cars are no longer assembled in Detroit but many part manufacturer are still there. The facotries most have moved to more rural lands and many to Canada or Mexico.

[The Duchess]

Looking forward to my Lundy Gras party. It is the night before MardiGras.

Waiting to see if it has a theme:

So far have costumes as:

French Aristocrat
Mozart
A Friar
A Mother Superior
A Pharoah

Who knows? I might be a Duchess this year?



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The Duchess

[Pumpkin_Man]

Like I said, a lot of innovations are still comming out of Detroit. You can buy one of those abandoned homes for a song, too if you wanted to live there. Some of those old mansions really look nice, and with no neighbors around, I could light off fireworks and blast my stereo with no complaints, and still have the conveniences of city living. The only thing is I would have to spend a fortune making that mansion liveable.

Dutches, that sounds like a good idea. I might cook something nice up for Fat Tuesday, which is the same day New Orleans celebrats the Madri Gras. Fat Tuesday is called that because it's the very last day of "Ordinary Time," before the season of Lent begins, and you go through a time period of sacrofice before the Easter season arrives.

At least it's that way for most Catholics.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

Yes, "Fat Tuesday" and "Mardi Gras" are the same thing. Mardi is French for Tuesday, and Gras means fat. The Duchess also talks about a "Lundy Gras" party he likes to give. Lundi is French for Monday, so he is giving a party on "Fat Monday" before "Fat Tuesday."

[NeverMore]

I've heard people from the U.K. call it Pancake Day. Maybe I'll go to iHop this year?

[The Duchess]

Yes, "Fat Tuesday" and "Mardi Gras" are the same thing. Mardi is French for Tuesday, and Gras means fat. The Duchess also talks about a "Lundy Gras" party he likes to give. Lundi is French for Monday, so he is giving a party on "Fat Monday" before "Fat Tuesday."

Well, I don't give the party but is a club. Two years ago I won second prize for best costume as A Mother Superior.



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[Murfreesboro]

Oh, a club is better than throwing a party yourself--that way you can enjoy the night without hosting duties!

Nevermore, I've heard of Pancake Day, too. Years ago I checked a book out of the library about Easter customs, since Christmas customs seem to be so much better known. The book talked about things leading up to the Easter season, like Mardi Gras and Lent. I guess with all of them the idea was to have one big blow-out just prior to the Lenten fast. For some reason it was forbidden to eat eggs during Lent. I guess they were considered too "rich." So people tried to use up all their eggs on Fat Tuesday or Pancake Day. The English were using them up in pancakes, obviously.

The prohibition on eating eggs during Lent helps explain all the emphasis on eggs come Easter Sunday.

I have also read (don't recall if it was in that book or elsewhere) that one reason St. Patrick's Day became such a big deal was that it gave the Irish Catholics an excuse to break their Lenten fast for that one day.

I think all of these customs receded in importance after England went through the Protestant Reformation, and many Catholic customs, such as keeping a Lenten fast, were downplayed. Since the original American colonists tended to be from Protestant sects (many of them even more Protestant than the Anglicans back home), America wasn't steeped in this stuff the way Europe had been. I grew up in the Episcopal church. We observed Lent in church, but we were never told we had to fast about it.

[Pumpkin_Man]

The signifinance of the Easter Egg is it represents the life within. Like Jesus Christ rose from the dead and became the life within the tomb, the egg represents food, within a shell, or the life within the tomb. And you are also correct. At one time eggs were forbidden during the Lenten Season. Now we are forbidden to eat any meats on Lenten Fridays and Ash Wednesday, except for eggs or fish.

St. Patrick's Day was allways a holiday in Ireland, that just happened to fall during the lenten season. Bishops often did give dispensations to predomenantly Irish parishes, and in Irelend if St. Pat's day fell on a Friday. My church, which actualy is St. Patrick's Church, was granted such a dispensation the last time St. Patrick's Day fell on a Friday.

Mike