Mardi Gras in Alexandria at Brasher Elementary

Mardi Gras is an annual celebration that occurs about 40 days after Christmas. Mardi Gras, loosely translated, means Fat Tuesday. Mardi, meaning Tuesday and Gras meaning fat (grand, big).

The Mardi Gras season begins with the feast of the Epiphany. Although it may appear to be a pagan holiday with all of the glitz and gaudiness of parades and partying, it culminates on the eve of Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday being the day that Christians begin the Lenten season. For most Christians this is the time of prepartion for the Easter celebration or Resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday. Along with all of the revelry associated with Mardi Gras, comes the knowledge that it is the last day of fun before the sullen time of fasting and offerings of good works to atone for our sins.

Mardi Gras is celebrated here in Alexandria, usually beginning with school parades on the Friday before Ash Wednesday. Many schools have parades to include the children in the fun. Our local neighborhood school, Brasher Elementary, has been having their Mardi Gras parade for about 9 years now. Our family usually participates in this parade by decorating our bass boat to look like a "Float". Some years it has been an elaborate undertaking and other years, it has been "just decorated". We are the Krewe of YaYaBreaux!!!!

We shop for small toys, stuffed animals, and jewelry on the store clearance aisles all year round and save up to have ample "goodies" to throw from the float.
Of course, we always purchase plenty of brightly colored Mardi Gras BEADS to throw. The Mardi Gras beads are what everyone yells for at a parade.

The familiar sound of shouts of: "Throw me Something" come from young and old. At school, the "crowd" is better behaved than at city wide parades. You have to remember that their teachers are with the students and keeping an eye out for misbehavior.

This year, we were not going to participate in the Brasher Elementary Parade but the principal ran into us in a store in town a few weeks ago and asked if we were going to be in the school parade. We told him we didn't know when it was going to be. He excitedly informed us of the date and time and pleaded with us to continue our participation.

I am glad that we did participate because if we hadn't they would have only had a motorcycle police officer, a sheriff's car, a small motorcycle group, and a pickup truck to entertain the children. With our participation, we added a Fire Engine from a local volunteer fire department (driven by our soon to be son-in-law), our pickup truck with someone throwing goodies, and pulling our boat with two of us throwing goodies. We through small toys like mini Dora the Explorer dolls, stuffed animals, Mardi Gras beads, plastic footballs, stuffed footballs, coloring books and crayons.

The children went wild when these throws began to make their way into the air and falling to the ground in front of them. Hugh smiles were evident everywhere as the parade made its way through the school driveway, in front of the school and back around again. The boat load of beads and candy and toys we had were exhausted before the final lap could be completed.

It was a pleasure to help these kids enjoy the Mardi Gras festivities. Most of them would not experience any part of Mardi Gras if the school had not provided them with this opportunity. For such a small investment (if you buy from clearance) you can achieve a multitude of happiness and memories of smiling faces on small children who deserve a little bit of fun and excitement.

I suppose that I had better start buying up all the stuffed animals and little toys I find on the clearance aisles for next year. Even though I say we will not participate again, I'm sure we will give our best effort to help out with the parade again next year.