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Mardi Gras is
Fun for the Entire Family! "Mardi Gras (meaning 'Fat Tuesday' in French) was originated in the USA by the French founders of Mobile, Alabama and is now celebrated mostly along the Gulf Coast from Northwest Florida to East Texas... It is known for its street parades, large formal balls and outlandish costumes. The largest celebration takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday every year" - lifeintheusa.com Well, guess what... We lived in Mobile, Alabama for 2 years and had the chance to learn more about this unique holiday, and experience it firsthand! Although this event might be thought of as a little wild and for adults only, this is not true. (Except for New Orleans and some other areas where they do get pretty wild from what I hear. But we're here to discuss the family side of Mardi Gras fun!) The parades in many areas are fun and safe, and the kids look forward to them each year, especially catching the pretty bead necklaces (mostly purple, green, silver and gold) and yummy moon pies that are thrown to the crowd from the floats, also known as Throws. Believe it or not, my two year old is wearing one of those beads at the very time of this writing, a pretty blue metallic one. I was 8 months pregnant with her when we transferred to another state, so she never got to see a Mardi Gras parade. But she has a nice supply of the beads to play with from her older siblings and I, who absolutely did not flash anything to get them, nor even knew about the tradition that goes on in other places! We have quite a nice collection of beads from the few parades we were able to attend in Gulf Shores, Fairhope and Old Spanish Fort (across the bay from Mobile). Although some of the beads are made cheaply and don’t hold up very long, many of the beads are quite nice. The parades are a lot of fun, in fact, I’m having a flashback now that the schools are even closed for this holiday so that the children can attend them. Lots of people dress up and wear flashy hats and masks made of the traditional Mardi Gras colors, purple-green-gold, but mostly it’s the riders on the floats that are all dressed up in elegant disguise. Even before the parade begins, attendees will be walking up and down the street with layers of beads around there neck to proudly show off there previous catches, either from years before or another parade in a nearby town. Living sort of in the middle, we had access to 4 different areas, and most would have more than one parade… the schedule lasted for about two weeks, with the major parade being on Fat Tuesday (the day before Lent begins), over in Mobile. It seems to me, that one was the biggest parade and lasted for hours. We never attended the big one, we chose to watch it on TV instead and avoid the big crowds. Right before we moved out of state, there was a Mardi Gras shop that opened up just for the season, stocked with cases of beads and moon pies and other party supplies, there was so much stuff I couldn’t make up my mind of what to get so I left with nothing… always regretted that one. The least I could have done was buy a case of moon pies, but all I could think about was how many calories must be in a CASE of chocolate moon pies, can you just imagine! But I think the store was mainly for float members anyways (private organizations called ‘Crewes’), where they could purchase their supplies to throw to the crowds along the parade routes… I wasn’t sure if I needed a special ID# or something to actually make a purchase so I left pretty quickly, after surveying all the goodies of course! Well, along with fun parades, there are also costume Balls with Kings and Queens to be crowned, and the popular King Cakes. The local grocery stores carry the Mardi Gras King Cakes in the bakery section, and I’ve just found out you can even order them online. They are kind of like a breakfast bread with several different varieties. They come plain, with cinnamon or fruit fillings, topped with a sugary glaze and the Mardi Gras colored sprinkles, and most of them have a tiny plastic baby doll inside. The person who finds the baby while eating the cake is supposed to have good luck for the year, and, they have to bring the next year’s cake! There are many different recipes for King Cake you can make at home, I have included one here on Holiday Family Fun. King
Cake w/ Cream Cheese Filling - Recipe
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