Mardi Gras

          Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday. The day after Fat Tuesday is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. During Lent, people give up things and try to pray more. During Mardi Gras, people have parades and eat the sweet things they will not eat during Lent. The biggest Mardi Gras party is held in New Orleans. This year, New Orleans is still trying to repair the damage done by Hurricane Katrina, but they are still having parties and parades.

          The colors of Mardi are purple, green, and gold. Purple stands for justice, green stands for faith, and gold stands for power. In New Orleans, there are many parades, and people dress up in costumes and masks. People riding on the floats throw things to the crowd, including beads in Mardi Gras colors. Everyone is having fun and enjoying one last party before Lent begins.

• Print out a Mardi Gras mask. You can pick a basic mask, a butterfly, or an eagle. You can take it home, color it, and cut it out.

• Look at the beads one Mardi Gras fanatic has collected over the years.  Watch out - this site has music.  Turn your speakers down. Here's another site with music and pictures of things thrown from floats.

• Select a Mardi Gras coloring page to print out and take home with you to color.

• Look at pictures of award-winning Mardi Gras costumes.

• Look at 360 degree panorama pictures of Mardi Gras events.  I like the Krewe of Elvis!