Fat Tuesday

Mardi Gras

 

Never been, always wanted to ride the river boat if nothing else, oh and the music, maybe the French quarter, oh I wanna go :cry

 

Afraid this is going to be one of the last Mari Gras we see in the Big Easy. People are giving up and moving out. The police are loosing an average of 17 officers a month to resignations. If you want to break into Law enforcement, that would be the time and place to do so, bet they are getting desperate now

Unfortunately, I think it was a case of Katrina hitting a city that was unprepared and whose infrastructure was too old to handle the punishment it received. On top of that, the inability of the federal gov't to properly mobilize with sufficient speed compounded the problems, leading to the fact that I highly doubt that we will ever see the Big Easy make a real recovery from it. (IMHO only that is)

~C

 

Interesting, I had not heard of it before, looked it up here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancake_Day

 

I don't know what to say about that except I hope they will recover sooner or later. There are catastrophes where it looks impossible to ever bounce back but people manage to make it happen. Thinking of at least three bad earthquakes here in California. What was it one year, something like 17 tornadoes whipped through the same section of the country? Your quite right about the gov. dragging their heels along with the insurance companies making a bad situation worse.

 

I hate to sound like a doom sayer, just my opinion from the info I have been able to gather from the news and the net. Has been a topic of discussion with my brother too, who is a civil engineer. Unfortunately, the biggest thing that is hurting the recovery is the outdated and aged infrastructure of the city. *shrug* i would love to see the city prove me wrong, Anne Rice's novels have made me a fan from afar who would love to be able to visit the city someday. We shall see what happens though.

~C

 

Yes and the city is how far below sea level? Sad the thing thats hurting it is it's charm. Your brother feels it's hopeless?

 

He thinks that it is not impossible for a recovery, but we agree that even if the city recovers, most of the older sections are not recoverable, the best we can hope for is a replacement that looks like the original....

~C

 

Re: New Orleans:- Yes, sadly a lot (all?) of it is on very low lying, unstable ground. N.O. will, and does survive in form or another, but will never be the same as it was. Not necessarily worse, but certainly not the same. Pity, when such history gets wiped out, not to mention lives.

Shrove (Pancake) Tuesday is part of the traditional Liturgical season of Lent (penance) in February. After Callop Monday, and before Ash Wednesday. which was literally, the end of the Christmas season, which lasts 40 days. And Candlemas Day (the Festival of light), Marking mid-winter, and a hopefully productive spring (in the northern hemisphere).

Some interesting facts about February:-

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/year/february.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancake_Day

 

I throughly enjoyed reading those, and I usually don't enjoy reading. I never knew February was so chucked full of traditions. 40 day Christmas season, glad my children never heard of that one. Thank You for those, going to pass them on to my grandchildren. For the knowledge, one is especially becoming interested in religion and traditions.

 

Otherwize known as Jif Lemon Day

 

foreigner here . What is this fat Tuesday festival? Cuz we had another fest yesterday.

 

I only new of the one in the US, (Fat Tuesday, the beginning of Mardi Gras) which takes place in New Orleans Louisiana. There are posts from Halo and Phantom above that are very informative. Found out there is lots of celebrations in the month of February around the world.

 

Googling was useful, lol.
Well, same time of the year, different reason. At the end of the carnival we celebrate the "Clean Monday", the beginning of the 40 day fast before Easter. Very few people fast though.

 

Thanks. I always enjoy learning and sharing knowledge, especially about the commonplace, and daily things we usually take for granted. Interesting to note just how much of our lives and traditions centre around religious and historical traditions - some dating back several thousand years, in the case of ancient Pagan customs. E.g., legends of Giants and Trolls may even date back to Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon times. Which begs the question of wether we have ancient, racial memories. But that’s something for another thread, entirely.

 

Never heard of it!

 

(Interesting to note just how much of our lives and traditions centre around religious and historical traditions -) so true, yet there are so many people up in arms over expressing religion these days. Some don't even want Christmas to depict anything with religious connotations, figure that one! Perhaps being the so called melting pot people don't like the idea of one religion over shadowing another. Then there are the atheist who would prefer to not have religion at all, on anything. I say give up your money which says (In God We Trust) but of course they want that taken off too.

 

You guys must be speaking english, huh? LOL

 

Funny enough we have a completely different tradition with a similar name today here in Sweden! Today is our annual Fettisdag!

This day has Christian origin. People were fasting during the month before Easter and this was one of the days before the last days before the fast kicked in, and you were adviced to eat lots of fatty food...

Traditionally, our special dish was only to be eaten this day. Later it became only on Tuesdays from this day on till Easter. Nowadays you can get them any day between New Years and Easter...

The dish is called Semla:

http://intryck.info/bilder/artikelbilder/semla.jpg

As you can see it has lots of whipped cream. Inside the bun there is some almost paste as well. It was a popular dish already during the 18th century where it was commonly served in a deep plate with hot milk...

Personally, I find them disgusting, way too much cream and no chocolate...

Sorry for hijacking, I just thought it was cool with 2 such different traditions with similar names!

 

@ Halo: I haven't had any eater buns, yet, but I did nosh up on a stack of pancakes with sugar and lemon (my preferred way to eat them. (No, I'll skip the Cif, thanks!)). :drool



@ Darlene:- Ours, and every society on earth throughout history is strongly influenced by religious ideas, regardless of the religious ideology, or lack of it, from the individual. Many Atheists like to think they are in the majority, and that they are the only ones intelligent enough to understand the universe. Well, all I'll say is that I've studied science al my life, and if people wish to take that line, it's up to them, as long as they don't expect everyone else to think like them. That's just being a zealot of another flavour, to use an ironic term.

I just find historical origins of calendar events, and many other customs very interesting. The fact that we are built on what has preceded us is obvious. When we realize that some can be traced back centuries, or even millennia is intriguing (to my mind, anyway).

@ Solange: Yeah, I remember those mega-fatening Cream and Marzipan, Semla, I think they were called.

….Any more Pancakes? <*Burp!>

 

@ Solange
This is all so fascinating, your not high jacking, it all seem to be connected just different names and origins.

 

Sorry Phantom, as yours is just a couple posts above, I kinda shortened it. What is interesting, is that if you look at a lot of the Christian Dogma, and compare it to the basic earth based religions of the Celts and northern Europe, you would be surprised at how well the 2 match up.

OK, that's all I have to say about religion

No pancakes here, but I am making some scones on Saturday.... does that count??


~C

 

Yep, true dat. I didn’t really want to go on too much about it. Each goes on what was before. There's actually a LOT of pre-Christian, or Pagan customs that state religion has assimilated. I just find the study of world mythologies and traditions pretty interesting. None's better than the other, just whatever suits the individual.

I still remember the ol' Pancake Races, LoL!

 

I still remember the ol' Pancake Races, LoL!
You mean the one where you dress up as a bulter or maid, and run round the streets with your fryingpan tossing pancakes. Done that twice, first time came second. Second year got tripped up bad sportsmanship.

 

Yes, indeedy. Around your neck of the woods, too.

 

Perhaps we can open a "Traditions Thread". We all have lots to say and sooner or later we will hijack this one .

 

oh hell. i missed it!! they have 'malasada' day here and i forgot the connection. (malasada's are a sort of doughnut). it's all burning monkeyss fault.

 

Fat Tuesday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBs4964D6NI&mode=related&search=



Krewe of Endymion Parade - Mardi Gras 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA6mdT4K3Gg&mode=related&search=



Alla Parade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKlxia-A17c&mode=related&search=