Mardi Gras

Today we celebrated Mardi Gras… a few days early I know but today is the last day of term so the perfect day to dress up!!

Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) is next Tuesday, the day before the beginning of Lent. Mardi Gras also marks the end of the Carnival period.

At the origin of the Carnival there were (of course !!) many old (and odd !!) habits from France. For example, the French took a fat cow around the roads of Paris to tell people not to eat meat during Lent. The word “carnival” means in Latin “to take away eating meat”.

We celebrated the Carnival today, and it didn’t have anything to do with a fat cow !!.

Today the young and the elderly of Reminiac came together. I arrived at the village hall with several other women, all heavily laden with crepes and cakes at about 3.00pm to prepare the hot chocolate for the children and to sugar the crepes.

But, we were beaten to it !!.. Five or six women in their seventies were bustling around the kitchen warming two huge pans of milk and worrying about the hot chocolate powder, was is the right sort ? and should they add some more sugar ?.

In the hall there were four or five bereted men, uncorking ten bottles of wine !.

At 3.30 the children arrived and they all went to have a chat to the waiting men and women, who, of course, complimented them on their costumes !!.. The hot chocolate was being ladled out into huge bowls and the crepes were being as eaten as fast as we could serve them.

We celebrate Mardi Gras

This afternoon the young and the elderly have come together in a very natural way. The interaction between the generations was just so easy and I really do hope that there will be many more events such like this.