Encyclopedias, Compendiums, Complete Compendiums and Manuals on Fat Tuesday

Even though it will vary from year-to-year, it still has a way of sneaking up on you. But I have discovered a way to "not be so surprised". It's a lunar thing, basically. Or, at the least, follows a lunar calendar. It's still got that little Pagenistic twang to it, left over from the Romans invading the Celts and tearing down their alters and having the Celts build Roman alters. Of course, the Celts were really smart and built the Roman alters over their old torn down alters and went on like nothing ever happened.The Romans being non-the-wiser. There has been encyclopedias, compendiums, complete compendiums and manuals written about Mardi Gras.

It seems that the church calendar year is really tied to lunar cycles more than we think, but the one that resonates with many throughout the Christian world seems to be the one I can never remember.
That would be, of course, Fat Tuesday, Shove Tuesday or as the French still say today, Mardi Gras, which literally means, "Fat Tuesday".  It is, in fact, a 47 day stretch before Easter Sunday and since Easter is determined by--you got it-- lunar cycles, that is why the date moves forward or backwards from year-to-year.  As another indication of lunar cycles, Epiphany is the earliest that Carnival, Mardi Gras can occur and it must end by midnight on Fat Tuesday as Ash Wednesday begins Lent, the period of fasting before Easter.

Of course, it is highly ordained as a cultural event because Mardi Gras is the period when all the fat things and crazy things are done before confession or Shovetide or Shove Tuesday. Therefore, in various regions, celebrations will vary and the traditional celebrations will most always include a "King's Cake".

A couple of days ago I was in my friendly K-roger store and as I walked past the bakery tables, there were stacks and stacks of big colorful boxes of iced and sparkled King Cakes. The cakes only come out this time of year. The little plastic baby Jesus if usually hidden in the cake, but in today's age of  what ever it is--- the little baby Jesus is on top in plain sight so as not to offend or to cause a chocking hazard. Frankly, it was better when you grew up and you parents talked to you from early on about finding the baby Jesus in the cake and to be careful. Of course, that common sense thing does not exist today in parenting, Which I find to be so sad.

Mardi Gras Beads thrown on February 17th in 2015. 2016 will be on February 9th and 2017 will be on February 28th

Day Three Post from St. Patrick's Parade

A Couple Toast the Parade-Goers

Superman !

Rowdy Cowboy?!

It's really been rather hectic this year with the parade pictures. First, I charged up my battery pack and had everything set for the short lens and the long lens cameras. The parade was soooooo good this year, I shot well over 300 images.  Processing that many images is a bit of a chore and that is just sorting out the files. It does not include the posting time and all that goes with that little task.

Today, two full days after the parade, I'm shooting at Fair Park and get the light that my battery pack is low. Usually, I get about three weeks from a charge. That caught me by surprise. So, I walked back to the car to get the short lens camera and to pack away the long lens. As luck would have it.....the guys were surveying the mound where Big Tex usually stands. Not only is he being rebuilt, the mound is going to be raised by six feet. In short, Big Tex is coming back bigger as well as his building up his standing ground.

Then, if that wasn't enough. I had just been over looking at the trains that are going to make up the next consist to be shipped to Frisco. So, since the day was moving along so well........I walked over to the Cotton Bowl because there was a crane lifting steel beams over the front facade. That lined up well with the new ride that is going up. Which is the tower at 500 feet. Men were working on the cable cars. Generally, there was a lot of activity at Fair Park. I turned around and two guys were taking pictures in front of the Cotton Bowl. One ask the question: "Why do they call it the Cotton Bowl?" I knew he wasn't from Texas. I ask him where he and his friend were from. "Ireland", he says!. Later, he said that they were from,"Galway". That's about as Irish as it can be as far as I'm concerned. They had walked from downtown Dallas, having gone through Deep Ellum. I suggested that they take the train back to downtown and pointed out the train station. I last saw them walking along the station fence and I would hope that they did take the train. That's a fur piece to walk.

On Saturday, I had taken the train down to the Park Lane Station and walked from Park Lane to just South of Southwestern, then after the parade walked on to the Lovers Lane station and picked up the train there. I still haven't checked the actual mileage but I'd call it a bit more than a fur piece! !