A lot of love squeezed into five days. This is the time of year that evokes nostalgia that parades. circuses, and Carnival call to mind for some of us. Whether they involve high school bands or college clubs’ homemade floats or looking for a cheap parking place so you have time to push through the crowds to be nearer the action, there is enough noise and giddiness as one waves arms to gather whatever is being tossed as the treat of the year to crown the moment with joy.
Carnival is the time before Lent where being part of a local happening counts in South Louisiana. We who were non-driving teenagers could maybe finagle a slightly older peer driver so we could go without an adult to Ponchatoula or even Covington for an afternoon offering. As Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, the very last day to celebrate approached, all of us non-drivers were a little antsy as we conjoled and begged various parents to take a group to New Orleans for the Krewe of Rex Parade. The King of the Krewe was always an older moneyed businessman and the queen was maybe a senior in college with flowing blond hair who held a jeweled scepter while performing the “queen wave’ with her other gloved hand to her clamoring crowd. The traditional Calliope float played. As it moved along, the song followed, ”If ever I cease to love, if ever I cease to love…” Sometime after noon, we piled in the back seat of the car and counted our beads , stopping for a hamburger at LaPlace before heading for Maurepas and home.
Wednesday 2024 opens the possibility for an extra drop of love on Valentine’s Day. However, most parishes from Rapides south have all week off, no togetherness easily available. Moving north Thursday and Friday, districts have school, yet they have missed the designated love day. Poor Caddo parish, in the northeast corner has no holidays, so Valentine’s Day is still safe for a hand-made or store-bought exchange. You may have to be inventive to make your declaration of true love this Leap Year.
After dark on Tuesday, sweepers begin cleaning the emptying streets in New Orleans. A new observance takes over the calendar. In church parlance, we wrap up and put aside the raucousness of Carnival, finish feasting with the crumbs of a King’s Cake, and move into the fasting liturgical season of Lent. The first Ash Wednesday Masses in some churches are as early as 6:30 a.m. The parade for the next 40 days is individual for each of us as we choose to be a part of the group moving toward crucifixion and Easter and resurrection when exuberant love breaks out again. That which is tossed toward our outstretched hands is more lasting than the tawdry beads of an earlier time.
This day, this year, this time, find your way to the parade whose finality is always the same.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:16 – 17
Let Me Tell Ya 