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

A Little Isle Across the Pond

 

The Dallas St.Patrick's Day Parade 2011


This parade is every bit as large as the Chicago,New York or Boston Parade. Who would have thunk !!
This year, the parade will officially be know as the Dallas St. Patrick's Parade but it all started where it continues today--on Greenville Avenue in the M Streets and Lower Greenville Section.

 

This year's parade is set to step off on Saturday, March 16,2013. It looks to be a good day weather wise, though weather can change. Since the parade has taken on the Dallas name....... and a new logo make-over ---there is a big push to take the focus toward a "family style" parade now.

 

That means the drinking and a bit of rowdiness is being tamed down or attempted to be tamed down. It often seems people try to tamper with things that are successful and  the power-mongers-to-be  suddenly want to try to standout with their attitude  --hey, look at me--and suck attention from the fun and the things that made the parade as big and as large and as successful as it has been for more than 30 years.

 

Yes, everyone understands the "family style" atmosphere, but in past years, that didn't stop the parents from bringing their kids to the parade, either. Lower Greenville is (besides being a residential area)  restaurants and bars and clubs.  It's a typical political issue  with the homeowners. They don't want the traffic, the parking issue, the noise, the trash, or an occasional urination on the back side of a building.  The Park Cities has that too.

 

It never fit my fancy for those that tried to hop on the band waggon when  everything was fine, but couldn't be found when the road got a bit rough. The fake smiles, the fake attitudes, the back stabbing, never makes a person, short-term or long-term, win anything.

 

 It would not like make me happy to see the parade move to another part of town or to see over thirty years of work go down the tubes because of a few belly achers either. That almost happened last year because the home owner associations pressure on city hall about the parking issue.

 

Across the pond, on that little isle they call Ireland, this kind of bickering would not be an issue. It would have been settled long before it got started and the party just keeps the tradition going and going and going.