BAYOU TALES ( 5 )

On Tuesday, February 24 which is the last day before the Catholic Lenten season begins for the year 2009, Mardi Gras will be celebrated. Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday. It is a day of merriment, and celebration before the Lenten season ( a season of pennace and fasting ) leading up to Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Many of us think of parades , floats and trinkets when it comes to Mardi Gras. However in the rural areas of Louisiana (mostly South Louisiana) the custom of Mardi Gras is enjoyed in another fashion. What is called La Courier de Mardi Gras )means the running of Fat Tuesday) men and now women take to the rural roads on horseback or wagon dressed in beautifully colored and adorned costumes with masks, going from farm house to farmhouse asking the farm owner for a chicken or some other ingredient that is used in a good ole Louisiana gumbo. The farm owner makes them earn their chicken by asking them to dance and sing. Once satisfied he then releases the chicken and the merrymakers are then in hot pursuit of the chicken for it is needed for the gumbo later that night. All the chickens obtained throughout the day are then used in the gumbo. The running starts very early in the morning and ends in the late afternoon. Therefore Mardi Gras was celebrated because it was the last day before the beginning of Lent which requires fasting and pennace. It was a last chance to celebrate before Lent began. Merci !