Oh. My. Gosh! I am beginning to think that Mardi Gras is one of the most super awesome holidays of the year. For those of you not familiar with this particular event being a school holiday, I am deeply sorry for your misfortune and I highly advise moving to the south for this advantage. Anyway, tangent aside, I can't help but love Mardi Gras for several reasons. One of course is the parades. The thought and work that is put into the creation of these floats are quite the site to behold and it is no easy task to put these suckers together. The beads are fun to catch too, but I prefer catching the coconuts from Zulu. Secondly, all the good food I get to eat makes the season feel like thanksgiving all over again. No, it's not a turkey feast, but it is a feast of red beans and rice, gumbo, po-boys (which by the way was called poor boys during the depression and was shortened to spice up the name afterwards), fried chicken and muffalettas.
Probably my most favorite part of Mardi Gras, however, is seeing the costumes. Everywhere you turn you see a different bizarre configuration of clothing on some person's body. I saw a group of friends walking around dressed like the characters from Sesame Street. Another couple was dressed up like a pair of sad clowns. Sometimes people wear practicly nothing at all.Two men on bourbon street were in their underwear and a set of angel wings each. Whether the outfit offends or amuses however, Mardi Gras allows the wearer to express themselves in a way that is denied to them the rest of the year (except maybe for Halloween, but that's one night as opposed to a whole day and for some, a weekend). They are free to explore their clothing creativity be it to mock, criticize, admire, amuse, or entertain; and I am grateful for their shamelessness because it makes my mardi gras that much more enjoyable.
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