As the French (or anyone from Naw’lins) would say, Laissez
les bon temps roulez! It means let the good times roll and it is the traditional
decree of Mardi Gras. Fat Tuesday is the culmination of a two-week celebration that includes food, parades and pageantry. “Fat Tuesday” is the last day of Mardi-Gras because folks stuff themselves
with all the rich foods, meats and desserts they can before fasting for lent.
You don’t have to participate in lent to participate in Fat Tuesday, and you
don’t need to dedicate a lot of planning a Mardi Gras celebration. You can simply share a colorful meal, or dessert to enjoy with your family.
Here are 6 fun, festive ways to celebrate Mardi Gras:
Replace your taco Tuesday with a Fat Tuesday pancake dinner.
It’s super easy and an enjoyable way to get the kids in the kitchen with you. Make
it festive by topping your pancakes with traditional colors of gold, green and
purple which symbolize power, faith and justice.
Enjoy a colorful traditional dessert called King Cake. You
can bake an easy cake yourself using store bought cinnamon buns in a round cake
pan, top with frosting and colored sprinkles. Even easier you can buy pre-made
cupcakes from the store and top with colored sugar. The tradition of King cake
is that whom ever finds the baby king inside the cake becomes king or queen for
the day. Not everyone has a tiny king baby lying around, but you cold easily
substitute a gold coin to insert inside your cake. If you are worried about
choking you can leave the baby or coin on top of the frosting.
Craft your own Mardi Gras masks using feathers and beads or
print one from Pinterest to color. If you have extra time and money, swing by
the dollar store to pick up something lively. Wear your masks while eating your
colorful pancakes, or king cake. You can host a contest for the winning design
so whom ever misses out on being king or queen for the day can earn some notoriety
too.
Enlist your older kids to Google some fun facts about Mardi Gras,
or search for traditional music to play at dinner.
Set a colorful table with green, gold and purple paper goods
or decorations.
Hand out beaded necklaces in Mardi Gras colors for your family
to wear at dinner.
No matter how busy your Tuesday night might be, there is still
plenty of time to celebrate Mardi Gras. It doesn’t require a lot of time or
money to enjoy and you’ll be making memories to last a life time. Also, besides
tacos, what else is there to celebrate on a Tuesday night?
Roxanne is a full time blogger at The Whatever Mom where she shares life as a hectic laundress, coffee queen and crazed mother of twins. Follow along with her on Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter.
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