Fat Friday

Yeah yeah yeah, I’m a little late to the game here. We had Fat Tuesday, we had Ash Wednesday, and now we have Fat Friday……except not really, because I’m back on full-blown keto. I also should add we actually had Wacky Wednesday, because it was Dr. Seuss week at my son’s preschool. But what I’m really here to talk about is Mardi Gras! This year I got to celebrate in Mobile, Alabama and two separate cultural pre-Lenten Mardi-Grasesque celebrations in Cleveland. Maybe one year I’ll graduate to New Orleans, but I doubt it. While I love New Orleans more than almost any other city, I have no desire to be in the French Quarter for Mardi Gras. Maybe throughout the season some of the more low-key parades. We’ll see. I don’t think our little family will ever be quite ready for Carnivale in Brazil or Venice, but I do enjoy seeing the photos and videos and hearing the stories. Crowds are not really our thing, but celebrations and elaborate costuming and parades are. Also, I’d be remiss not to add a little bit about the mystery and intrigue here….this is a blog that focuses on the supernatural, after all. So let’s dive in.

Mobile
Mardi Gras in Mobile began in 1703, when Mobile was the capital of French Louisiana. In essence, Mobile provides a historical foundation for the Mardi Gras traditions celebrated throughout the United States. The Mobile Mardi Gras season involves a series of events, including parades, balls, and parties, organized by mystic societies. I had the pleasure of coming here for the first time about 25 years ago and while it is a bit of a blur, I remembered family friendly parades, moon pies being thrown, and southern hospitality galore. So inevitably I had been wanting to come back. This year I had that chance. It was the first real weekend of Mardi Gras, with parades starting the very weekend I visited.

We were also able to visit the Carnival Museum, a complete gem. It was busy because it’s Carnival season, but not so packed that we couldn’t enjoy the place. There was a guided tour when we were there. We listened for the first part of it in the large event space, but there was too big of a group to continue through the smaller rooms, so we dropped off and did the self-guided tour.

Some of these Mardi Gras Kings and Queens capes are just spectacular. There was one with such precise details and little embroidered hummingbirds. It was my fave. Then there were some really creepy older costumes on display too, which were duly fascinating to see. I love the old home where the museum is housed. It is……what else? Haunted. The Bernstein-Bush mansion, where the museum is housed, has a history that contributes to its haunted reputation, as it was once a former funeral home. There are quite a few stories of paranormal activity, including an entity referred to as “Ralph” by museum staff, mannequins moving on their own, exhibit pieces going missing and reappearing, and lights turning on and off on their own. During the brief part of the guided tour that we caught, the Guide told us that he has seen a lot of these mannequins move around after hours. Creeeeppppyyyy.

Before leaving Mobile, my friend Ting who was visiting from Orlando and I got to meet up with Carol who operates the original ghost tour in Mobile. Ting and Carol have been longtime friends and I’ve known Carol through our Ghost Tour Guides group, but this was our first in-person meeting. What a treat to meet her! She has been in the business for many years and successfully operated a multi-fleet bus tour and now her ghost tour in Mobile. Carol is a wealth of interesting stories and knowledge. I am looking forward to going back again next year and spending some more time with her.

Cleveland
Kurentovanje
Kurentovanje is the fun festival right before the lent season where the Kurents come and ring cow bells to scare away winter. My four year old loved the parade. It was not too crowded outside because it was still quite cold on this early March day. But he got a lot of attention and some candy, and we had a lot of laughs when one of the Kurents snuck up behind him, making him jump a mile. Very organized parade route and very easy to get a good spot. Inside was another story- the venue was packed! We sifted our way through the crowd to get a hot dog for my son and then some treats to take home with us. I would have loved to have stayed a little longer and visited some of the outside vendors, but the natives (i.e. my child) were getting restless.

Maslenitsa
My son and I were here for here for the Russian Maslenitsa Festival, which bids farewell to the winter season and welcomes spring. We got there early and it was not very crowded yet. Parking was unavailable at the venue, but was a short walk from the funeral home next door, where we were directed to park. There were pancakes and caviar, as well as some other ethnic treats. My son enjoyed the pancakes, which were a thin consistency similar to crepes. The venue was not large and there was not a lot of seating, but we got there early enough before it started to fill up. I enjoyed the costumed dancers and the cute nesting dolls.

So I cannot have a Fat Tuesday blog post and not to talk about Moon Pies and Paczkis and King Cakes (oh my!) Traditionally in New Orleans, Mobile, and a lot of the Southeast throughout carnival season people buy and/or bake king cakes with baby Jesus hidden inside. The tradition is that the one who gets the baby is the one who buys the next king cake. And as tradition dictates, you always must keep a knife in the box to cut the cake. Now when I was in high school French Club, we had a king cake my freshman year and the one who got the baby was crowned the Queen of French club. Guess who got the baby? And guess who swallowed it because she was too shy to be the Queen? Yup. I never did see the likes of that baby, so I have likely been pregnant since the early 90s. Beignets are served year-round in New Orleans, but I see them pop up on menus around the US more frequently during Mardi Gras season. Then in my region of northeast Ohio and a lot of other rust belt cities where there are large populations of Polish people, there are paczkis. This is like a thick yeast donut filled with things like prunes (eww), apricot (that’s better), and even peanut butter cream (now we’re talking). They are sold in bakeries and grocery stores the weeks leading up to Fat Tuesday. And moon pies? These round objects are often thrown out at Mardi Gras parades. In Mobile I was thrown SO. MANY. MOON. PIES of various flavors, and even an entire box of blueberry moon pies. I don’t care for them, but my son really enjoys them. I had to hide them when I returned home and there are a quite few still left in my cupboard for a rainy day. The Slovenian tradition is to serve Poticas (nut rolls) during festive celebrations, which we picked up during Kurentovanje. This is pictured in the gallery below. The Russian festival we attended heavily promoted the pancakes. I’ve also heard of the tradition in the U.K. where pancakes are served the day before Ash Wednesday and it is known as “Shrove Tuesday”. I had some friends tell me that in their region, “Pancake Day” is commonly celebrated on this day here in the U.S. too. (Good thing the Maple Syrup festival is coming up this weekend. We went last year and maybe we’ll have to go again.)

Last but not least, there is the Youngstown Cookie Table event “Cookie Tables and Cocktails”. While not really associated with Mardi Gras, happens annually in February every year, so I have now associated it with the Mardi Gras season anyhow. In case you are unaware, cookie tables are common in eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania at weddings, graduations, baby showers, and other festive occasions. The history of this tradition is that young couples who could not afford a wedding cake during the Great Depression, instead had friends and family bake dozens of cookies to serve at their wedding. This was primarily a tradition in Italian and Eastern European families In this day and age, the cookie table is typically a supplement to the wedding cake itself and is part of weddings for every culture in this region where I live. The Mahoning County Historical Society puts on the “Cookie Tables & Cocktails” fundraising event each year where volunteers bake over 10,000 cookies to be sampled. Each attendee is given dinner, by way of a buffet, and later on a plate to collect a baker’s dozen of the homemade cookies. (My table was called towards the end, so some of the good ones were already all picked-over.) So much for New Year’s resolutions, right?

So now it’s Lent and we must give up all of the aforementioned indulgences. I think it’s interesting that Lent lines up calendar-wise with Ramadan and Adar. Adar also includes one fast day, the fast of Esther before Purim in the Jewish culture. All three of these religious practices include giving to charity as part of their observance. I think I’ve just figured out what I’m going to do with all of these moon pies I’ve collected…..