Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Why Mardi Gras is Better Than Christmas (H/T Sydney Roux)

* Begging for toys at Christmas is considered gauche, but if a float rolls by and you don't scream and yell for beads and trinkets and just one more plastic cup to add to the collection that occupies approximately 3/4 of the space in your pantry, people might ask you if you're feeling alright.

* While I have heard that it can be hard to be a Jew during Christmas, during Mardi Gras that base is covered.

* You may be able to find a King Cake in December, but it's probably not as good as this or this or this.

* Sure, on Christmas morning you may find yourself lounging in your pj's a bit longer than usual, heck you might even indulge in a pre-brunch Mimosa, but Mardi Gras casts a lovely spell over the rhythms of daily life, for weeks on end. People tend to take vacations at Christmas, but during Mardi Gras we take sabbaticals. Baths are taken in the morning, so as not to interfere with parading. It's generally considered appropriate to consume alcoholic beverages before 9 a.m.--same goes for fried chicken and King Cake. Work, traffic, laundry, school, and pretty much every other activity of daily living stops about 5 days before Fat Tuesday, and at some point in that span of time between the halt of normal routine and the day we're supposed to repent and have our foreheads smeared with ashes, many of us will look down at our bare feet, or catch a glimpse of our face in a random rearview mirror, realize we've already been smudged, and consider our duty done.

* At some point during the Christmas season, the age-old dilemma about whether or not the Santa Claus myth counts as lying to your kids is bound to come up in conversation. During Mardi Gras there's no such moral ambiguity. Sure, you might have to make up some sort of story about the guy "taking a nap" on your front lawn, but trust me, that's definitely for the best.

1 comment:

ALM said...

I loved this post and I agree with it completely!