Mardi Gras falls on a Tuesday between February 3 and March 9 Every Year.
When you grow up in New Orleans or Metairie, always going to numerous Mardi Gras parades every year commencing from the time you are born; you often wonder how strange it would be if there was no Mardi Gras? It's free and its fun for kids, adults, maskers, and the general public, year, after year, after year.
Every Year Lots of King Cakes are Eaten at King Cake Parties in Metairie.
The colorful New Orleans King Cake consumed annually during the Mardi Gras season grows out of the traditional European celebration twelve days after Christmas called "Epiphany", "Little Christmas" or "the Twelfth Night", a time for exchanging gifts and feasting the coming of the wisemen bearing gifts to the Christ Child. The baking of a special cake in honor of the three kings during twelfth night celebrations is still a popular custom around the world.
In Louisiana, thousands of King Cakes are consumed during the Mardi Gras season each year, starting on the twelfth night and extending through Mardi Gras Day ("Fat Tuesday"). You can expect to find freshly decorated King Cakes containing a hidden, inedible baby figure inside, at all Metairie bakeries and supermarkets throughout the Mardi Gras season. A lot of King Cakes are eaten at King Cake Parties. The person whose piece of cake contains the hidden baby is expected to host a new King Cake Party, where someone else will get a hidden baby, and so on until Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras day!
After the intense climax of the the Mardi Gras celebrations, Louisianans, many of which are Roman Catholics, commence the observation of the forty days of Lent, a holy season of penitence which extends through Easter Sunday.
Some Europeans hide a bean inside their cakes, and the person who receives the bean must portray that he or she is one of the kings. In Latin-American, a small "baby" figure is hidden inside the cake representing the Christ Child. The lucky person who gets the piece with the hidden baby inside is supposed to have good luck and fortune during the next year.
The original Mardi Gras King Cakes were only a simple ring of dough with little decoration. But now, the contemporary New Orleans style King Cakes are brightly decorated ringed cakes that come in many sizes and variations containing Mardi Gras Colored pieces of fruit, sugars, and various types of filling. Thousands of King Cakes are consumed at parties every year in the Crescent City and Metairie.
2015 Schedule is located here
Mardi Gras Links
Mardi Gras ColorsPurple - Justice Green - Faith Gold - Power
