Pagan holidays abound in the late winter, too. Mardi Gras, carnival, Shrovetide, Fat Tuesday, Maslenitza, call it what you will. They all started out pagan and ended up as sort of a pagan/Christian hybrid.

All these celebrations have one common denominator, eat and be merry before the penitence of Lent. The eat-and-be-merry part is pagan; the 40-day fast of Lent is Christian. Even though these holidays are essentially the same, they all land in mid-February and started in various parts of the world as a send-off to winter, not all have the same name familiarity.

Won’t tell you how to celebrate Mardi Gras or carnival. You know how to find cheap, plastic beads, a glitter mask and a liquor store. We’re here to give you the scoop on Maslenitza, the Slavic version of the slightly more well-known English holiday of Shrovetide.

Maslenitza, which translates, roughly, to Pancake Day, lands on the Tuesday before Russian Orthodox Lent begins. Russians, Ukrainians and other Slavic cultures cook up a stack of blini, big, round crepes that symbolize the return of the sun. Traditionally they are served with caviar, herring or salmon, sour cream and butter. There’s folk dancing, there’s singing, there’s vodka.

The best place to celebrate this festival is probably in Minsk, Belarus, a nation that has yet to experience glasnost and therefore has escaped the scourge of globalization. But it’s tough to get a visa to go there.

So the best place to get a taste of Maslenitza in Eugene is at Zolotoy Petushok (Golden Rooster) on West 11th Avenue. This tiny Russian restaurant, grocery, deli, and video and bookstore serves up blini with both sweet and savory fillings, called blinchiki.

You won’t get herring or even caviar at Zolotoy Petushok. But you will get tasty blinchiki filled with chicken, farmer’s cheese, vegetables or fruit.

Accompanied by Russian-style sour cream, powdered sugar and/or jam, these pancakes are rich and delectable, and make you feel as if you should start fasting immediately.

BEST PLACE TO CELEBRATE MASLENITZA
Zolotoy Petushok, Where: 3163 W. 11th Ave., Phone: 393-0091
Hours: 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Holiday: Maslenitza ‘07 is celebrated Feb. 20

Decorate colorful mask with beads and ribbons to prepare for Carnival, chase winter blues away.
Winter may have taken its good-old time getting here, but it finally arrived with an icy vengeance. And regardless of what that groundhog claims, spring will arrive when it usually does.

Chase away those winter blahs with a Mardi Gras celebration. It’s Carnival time in New Orleans, where the parade season is in full swing. While many activities are for adults, there are parades planned especially for kids, such as the Krewe of Little Rascals parade in Metairie, La., just outside New Orleans. Kids will also be on hand to watch four-legged parade participants strut their pedigrees in the Mystic Krewe of Barkus parade.

This is the second Carnival season since Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the Gulf Coast. Parade routes have been altered to avoid blighted neighborhoods that have not recovered from the storm. There are 31 parades scheduled between Feb. 9 and Fat Tuesday, Feb. 20, the day before Lent begins.

If you’re stuck indoors because of the weather, you can enjoy Mardi Gras by throwing a party with a Carnival flavor. Make decorations in the official Mardi Gras colors of purple, green and gold. Use beads and doubloons for party favors and make masks using things you have at home plus a few items from a craft store.

Supplies you will need:
• Mask.
• Purple acrylic paint and brush.
• White glue.
• Green crepe paper.
• Hole punch.
• Strings of beads and/or sequins.
• Two Mardi Gras ponytail holders (from craft store).
• 12-inch dowel.
• Thin ribbons in yellow, green and purple.
• Feathers.
• Beads.

Paint the mask purple.

While it dries, take a 12-inch square of green crepe paper and fold in half four to six times. Randomly punch holes in the paper to make it look like lace. Unfold the paper. Brush glue on the mask and place the paper on top of the mask, carefully smoothing the paper down flat. When dry, trim the paper from around the mask and eye holes.

While the glue is drying, wrap the ribbons around the dowel. Tie off each end and secure with a drop of glue to keep the ribbons from unraveling. Thread a few beads or buttons onto the end of three 12-inch lengths of ribbons and tie to the top of the dowel.

Line your mask with strands of sequins, beads, or both. I cut two elastic ponytail holders in half and glued them to the bottom edge of my mask, under a string of gold beads. Glue feathers to the back of the mask at the top and trim.

Glue the dowel to the back, upper right corner of the mask with the ribbons hanging from the top. Let dry overnight.

Today marks the beginning of the end of the Carnival season, four more days of watching parades, snaring beads and eating Moon Pies before the Order of Myths wraps everything up on Fat Tuesday.

The weekend will also be chock-full of strange Mobile Mardi Gras traditions, from the Joe Cain Procession to Folly chasing Death with inflated pig bladders. For the visitors and newcomers to the area, along with the natives who never knew but were too embarrassed to ask, here’s a handy guide to fill everyone in on the mysteries of Mardi Gras.

Vernadean

This giant fire-breathing, smoke-spewing dragon float has been the hit of Saturday night’s Mystics of Time parade since the organization first hit the streets in 1949.

Originally 45 feet long, the dragon has since grown to its current 150-foot long incarnation. Along the way, it sired two offspring, smaller dragons named Verna and Dean, which also ride in the parade.

A replica and full-size model of Vernadean sit in the Mobile Carnival Museum on Government Street.

The Mystics of Time Parade starts at 6 p.m.

The Goat Man

The Saturday before Fat Tuesday each year is designated “Goat Day” in Prichard. The Krewe of Goats formed in 1995 and is based in Prichard but is not affiliated with the Prichard Mardi Gras Association. The society held its first parade in 1996.

The Goat Man portrays a resident of the Bullshead area of Prichard who in the 1920s tended a small herd of goats.

At the time, when Mardi Gras was mostly for the rich, he began hitching goats to a homemade cart and traveling up and down the narrow dirt roads, singing and tossing homemade trinkets, such as cookies, wooden whistles, marbles and popguns, to the crowd.

This year’s Goat Man is Elmer Craig, a great-grandfather and former Marine, corrections officer and aerospace technology worker.

Joe Cain

Joseph Stillwell Cain is widely credited as the father of Mobile’s modern Mardi Gras.

Mobile denizens had taken part in Mardi Gras festivities as early as 1704, when the city was the capital of the French colony in America. But the Civil War put an end to the celebrations.

In 1866, while Mobile was still occupied by Union troops, Cain, who was a town clerk, dressed up as a Chickasaw Indian chief and drove a coal wagon through the city streets. The costume had a rebellious symbolism, as the Chickasaw tribe had never been defeated in battle.

Cain took part in Mardi Gras until his death in 1904. In 1966, Cain’s body was removed from a Bayou La Batre grave and reinterred in the Church Street Graveyard, where Joe Cain Day celebrations begin every Sunday before Fat Tuesday.

The celebration is known as “The People’s Parade,” because originally anyone was allowed to join the procession. Police have since capped the number of participants.

Chief Slacabamorinico

The fictional Chickasaw chief that Joe Cain invented for that 1866 procession. Only four men have played Old Slac throughout Mobile’s Mardi Gras history.

Cain dressed as the chief until 1879, then Old Slac went dormant for nearly 90 years. The chief was reincarnated in 1967, when Julian Lee “Judy” Rayford — a Mardi Gras historian, enthusiast and folklorist who had arranged to have Cain reburied at the Church Street Graveyard — donned the headdress while leading the first Joe Cain Day procession.

Rayford turned over the role to J.B. “Red” Foster, chief inspector for the Mobile Fire Department, in 1969.

Foster stepped down in 1985 and was replaced by the Rev. Bennett Wayne Dean Sr., pastor of the Excel and Megargel United Methodist Churches in Monroe County, who will lead the parade Sunday.

The Merry Widows

Old Slac leads the procession, but it’s the Merry Widows who kick off Joe Cain Day.

Starting in 1974, every Joe Cain Day, the “widows” don black gowns, hats and veils and gather to go to the entrance of Church Street Graveyard early Sunday to weep and moan near the grave of their departed “husband,” Joe Cain.

After the mourning, they start dancing and partying, and then move on to Cain’s former home, at 906 Augusta St., to toast and eulogize the man.

During the actual Joe Cain Day procession, the widows, there are between 10 and 20, and their true identities are kept secret, ride in a trolley-like vehicle tossing cups, beads and black roses to the crowd.

Comic Cowboys

Every Fat Tuesday, the Comic Cowboys forsake fancy floats and costumes and instead parade through Mobile on flatbed trucks festooned with satiric handmade signs mocking newsmakers of the previous year.

The Cowboys were founded in 1884 under the slogan “Without Malice” and take pot shots at everyone from local football heroes to national politicians.

“Honk if you Sacked Brody,” read a sign last year after Alabama quarterback Brody Croyle was brought down 11 times in a 28-18 loss to Auburn.

“California, the only state where the illegal aliens speak better English than the governor,” read another after Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of the Golden State.

The Cowboys follow the Knights of Revelry at 12:30 p.m.

Mardi Gras Royalty

Every year, the Mobile Carnival Association (a traditionally white organization) and the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association (a traditionally black organization) anoint kings and queens to rule over their Fat Tuesday parades and other festivities.

The Carnival Association chooses King Felix III and Queen Helen. This year the king is Max Bruckmann, and the queen is Helen Beatrice Meaher. The two are chosen nearly a year before Mardi Gras, crowned Saturday night, given the key to the city on Monday and lead the King Felix parade on Fat Tuesday.

MAMGA chooses its King Elexis I and queen, who this year are Joseph Jermaine Roberson and Stefannie Jacinta Lucas. The pair are crowned Sunday evening, have a Royal Feast on Monday and lead the MAMGA Mammoth Parade on Tuesday.

Both sets of royalty have courts of knights and ladies, or maidens, who accompany them.

Folly chasing Death

The Order of Myths, Mardi Gras’ final parade, always has one float that features a jester named Folly, armed with inflated pig bladders, chasing the skeletal figure of Death around the broken column of life.

Most agree the scene symbolizes that laughter is the only way to deal with the imminence of mortality, although some say Folly and Death, who debuted shortly after the Civil War, also represent the South and the North, respectively.

Whenever Folly hits Death with a pig bladder, it’s a strike against the Union army, some claim.

In the Knights of Revelry parade earlier on Fat Tuesday, Folly is also played by someone on a float, and he vigorously beats his inflated pig bladders against the float.

Masked Observer

Also referred to as the M.O. or the Masked One, he works for the Press-Register, filing exclusive reports throughout Carnival season.

The Observer’s identity remains cloaked largely because it affords him the ability to move among Mobile’s secret societies unnoticed. He is a well-tailored fly on the wall.

His job, essentially, is to attend many of the area’s Carnival balls and report back on the goings on. It must be said that he also views himself as something of a torchbearer for the older, more courtly ways; a Mr. Manners of Mardi Gras, if you will.

For example, his nom de plume is a bit of a misnomer, in that he does not wear a mask while attending balls. Doing so would actually make him far more conspicuous and, more important, would not be proper, since tradition holds that only mystic society members wear masks at their social events.

It can be said that there is only one Observer, and he has always been the Observer. It does not, as some have guessed, work like mall Santas.

A Pancake by any other name is still delicious

Just when you thought New Year’s Eve partying was over and Valentine’s Day is peeking over the horizon, the mother of all celebrations is heading our way. We’re talking Mardi Gras. Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day or just plain Fat Tuesday. They all spell the same thing, party time!

The whole world’s gearing up for a carnival of masked balls, parades and gastronomic greatness. And, although February 20 is still a few days away, it’s considered one of the biggest celebrations world-wide.

Many cultures participate in their own unique style in days leading up to Ash Wednesday, which marks the start of Lent, the 40-day period of penitence before Easter.

New Orleans in particular is historically synonymous with Mardi Gras, and this year preparations are well on their way to bring the good times back to the Big Easy, with the use of a new clever ad campaign. According to a recent Reuters report, New Orleans tourism officials are using humorous ads to lure visitors back 17 months after Hurricane Katrina. One of the ads features an interior shot of the city’s Aquarium of the Americas with the caption, “This is the only part of New Orleans that is still underwater.”

The ad campaign comes as the city is gearing up for the annual Mardi Gras celebration. New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau spokesperson Mary Beth Romig is quoted as saying, “We have to allow ourselves the permission, a year and a half later, based on what we are hearing from the general public, to take what they are questioning us about and at some times, laugh a little.”

So, although we have the frenzy of New Orleans, the steamy sexiness of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, the magic splendour of Venice, Italy, Mardi Gras has its origins in ancient Rome with roots that date back to pagan rites that celebrate the changing seasons and the rituals of life and death.

Our pre-Lenten gastronomic blowout allows us to throw caution and calories to the wind. And it’s certainly not Mardi Gras without a plateful of sweets! Each country and each celebration has its own variation on the sweet theme, a sweet dough in particular, from the buttery goodness of the tri-coloured King Cake to the eclectic variations of sweet, fried dough that many countries lay claim to.

In Poland it’s the delicious paczki doughnut while the Germans make fastnacht kuchen, which means “cakes for the night before you fast.” The Italians have the puffy, sugary fritelle (fritters) while the French produce the most ethereal crepes.

And then we have pancakes, our own special sweet. One story says the pancake tradition originated in England, some 500 years ago, when a woman was frying dough to use up the fat in her kitchen before Lent. Descendants of the pancake tree include the Mexican tortilla, the Chinese Mandarin pancake, the Russian blini and the Indian chapati. A pancake by any other name still tastes great!

We live in pancake history, from food scientists who write papers on the proper amount of “flips” the perfect pancake needs, to pancake festivals worldwide. According to the Library of Congress Local Legacies Project, an event that billed itself as the World’s Largest Pancake Breakfast was revived in 1986 for the 350th anniversary of Springfield, Mass. In 1999, thousands of pancakes were served to more than 40,000 people, stacked up, they’d be more than 3 km high.

One of the most hilarious pancake images is that of the late John Candy creating a monster of a pancake for his young charges to enjoy in one of his best films, Uncle Buck. The image of Candy just beaming as he presented this massive treat in all its delicious,ooey, gooey glory tells you, any day is pancake day.

In the festive mood? You may not know it, but it’s Carnival time, a season which began on Twelfth Night, January 6, and runs until February 20.

Is it another name Mardi Gras? Carnival’s the period between Christmas and Lent, while Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the actual day before Lent, when everyone goes for one last pig-out before settling down to an austere 40 days before Easter. They both end on the same day, Ash Wednesday.

The two definitely have one thing in common, eating, drinking and merry-making on a grand scale. And as much as we’re starting to ogle the steamy sexiness of Rio costumes, or dreaming about the snowy splendour of Quebec, all eyes will be on New Orleans as she rolls out the welcome mat with parades, masks, beads and, without a doubt, delicious foods.

Is she ready 18 months after the ravages of Hurricane Katrina? Word is the people of New Orleans can’t wait to celebrate! As one Mardi Gras leader said “the entire world needs Mardi Gras!”

In Toronto, one company in particular keeps its heart in the Big Easy. “We’ve been to New Orleans 53 times since 1993, three of those trips were post-Katrina, and I’ve never seen such spirit there,” says Karen Cosburn, who with her husband Glenn run the popular Cajun Corner on Queen St. E. (416-703-4477, www.cajuncorner.ca), “The sense of life is similar to a decade ago, only a thousand times stronger.”

Cosburn, whose shop sells everything needed for a Mardi Gras party as well as such food products as catfish, the U.S. farm-raised, hush puppies and N’awlins coffees, says “things have changed dramatically, and many of them for the better. There’s a palpable spirit there.”

The city will be festooned with the traditional Carnival colours of purple, green and gold and everyone’s gearing up food-wise: The famous King Cakes, Po’boy sandwiches, jampalaya, etoufee and beignets.

There’s also the one food synonymous the famed festival, catfish! According to the U.S.-based Catfish Institute, the fish is sweet, mild and good for you. It’s synonymous with famed chefs like Paul Prudhomme and his mouth-watering blackened catfish with Creole sauce. Low in calories and packed with nutrition, it was the very first fish in Canada to wear the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Health Check seal.

This year, let’s usher in a Mardi Gras in grand style and celebrate with our neighbhours in the south. Here are a couple of recipes to help you along.

Read these on our Holiday MardiGras Recipes category!

Fat Tuesday, the final day of Carnival before Lent, is a combination of party, reunion and tradition. The date this year will be February 20.

For others, it’s a day spent camped out along a parade route, catching gaudy beads thrown from maskers on floats. The meal of the day varies from hamburgers and hot dogs to red beans and crawfish. And, oh yes, beer, lots of beer. Although the raucous party in the French Quarter, with revelers trading flashes of flesh for strings of beads, has become well known, it is only one of the many faces of Mardi Gras.

Families show up early along St. Charles Avenue, staking out choice viewing spots on the streetcar tracks. Many bring tents, cots, chairs, coolers and grills. By the time the Krewe of Zulu parade rolls on the morning of Fat Tuesday, revelers are elbow to elbow.

Last year the city staged a scaled-back Mardi Gras, stirring controversy about the propriety of holding the party after Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of New Orleans and killed 1,698 people. The reduced celebration was supposed to show that New Orleans was on its way back. Certainly Mardi Gras is. In New Orleans that means parades must have a minimum of 14 floats and seven bands.

Parading begins more than a month before Mardi Gras. There are also boat parades, children’s parades and even a parade for dogs, the Krewe of Barkus, and their owners in costume. The less public side of Carnival is the masked balls, at which the city’s elite and elite-for-an-evening reign as figurative monarchs over the society debut of young men and women.

Though a couple of parading organizations, known as krewes, have canceled parades this year, another 53 are scheduled in New Orleans and its neighboring parishes before the party comes to an end at midnight on February 20.

American Idol winner Taylor Hicks will reign as the Krewe of Endymion’s grand marshal for the 2007 Carnival season. Endymion will move down historic St. Charles Avenue on Feb. 17, one of 18 parades scheduled to roll in New Orleans between Feb. 16 and 20. That’s also when the revelry in the French Quarter gears up with people staking out balconies along Bourbon Street and clubs running 24 hours a day. In the French Quarter the atmosphere is risque and after dark can be downright raunchy.

On Fat Tuesday, it’s worth a trip to the Quarter to see the costumes, which range from elaborate to almost nonexistent. The Forty-third Annual Bourbon Street Awards Show, billed as the ultimate costume contest, will be held on Mardi Gras Day at noon at the corner of St. Ann and Bourbon streets. The costumes are eye-popping, both for their workmanship and for the gender-bending involved.

Costuming has been declining for years, but true Mardi Gras buffs still show up along the parade routes on Fat Tuesday in costume. The outfits don’t have to be intricate. Simple costumes adorn whole families or groups, making both an attention-grabbing display and an easy way to spot members who wander off.

This year there are more flights coming into New Orleans, although the airport is still not at full capacity. Hotel rooms are up to 30,000, still less than the 38,000 available before Katrina, but up from the 24,000 last year. Hotels are expecting to be over 90 percent full, Sawyers said. Restaurants open and even extend their hours during Carnival, according to Wendy Waren, director of communications for the Louisiana Restaurant Association. Reservations fill fast, she said. Some restaurants along the parade route, as well as restaurants and bars in the French Quarter, offer deals that allow patrons to have unlimited access to the facility, food, drink and, just as important, a bathroom.

This year’s Zagat Survey of New Orleans — the first of the city since Katrina, includes reviews of leading hotels, night clubs, bars and other attractions. It includes 390 restaurants, down from the last survey two years ago, which had more than 500 restaurants. Businesses that have reopened since Katrina primarily are in the French Quarter, downtown and the Garden District, all parts of New Orleans tourists know and love, Zagat said.

In addition to Mardi Gras on the street, there is a multimedia exhibit, “Carnival,” at the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Louisiana Children’s Museum explores carnival traditions throughout the world.

The Mardi Grass Indians, black carnival groups that make extravagant costumes and stage mock battles throughout the city on Fat Tuesday, can be difficult to find. Their parade routes are apt to change quickly. But the Wild Magnolia Indians will give a free outdoor concert at the Presbytere in Jackson Square on Saturday, Feb. 17.

The Monday before Mardi Gras, once a day to rest up for the big event, had now become a daylong celebration. There is a full range of activities at the Riverwalk near the French Quarter. A day of live music and food is capped at 6 p.m. when a Coast Guard Cutter delivers Rex, King of Carnival to take over the city.

St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square will offer Ash Wednesday Mass. Many of those attending are still draped with beads.

Related Links >
www.mardigrasneworleans.com

www.mardigrasneworleans.com/arthur/ and http://www.mardigrasday.com

www.neworleanscvb.com

The king cake is yet another treasured tradition that began in New Orleans and has worked its way around the country.

For those who haven’t been exposed to a king cake, historians say that this cake was served on “Little Christmas” or “Kings’ Day”, other names for the Feast of the Epiphany, celebrated Jan. 6.

Traditionally, the cake was baked on Epiphany Eve and served the following afternoon to family and friends, according to nola.com, a New Orleans Web site. Today the cake is served throughout the Epiphany season, or until Mardi Gras. Over the centuries, the cake was baked in honor of the Magi, the three wise men who came with gifts for the baby Jesus.

In New Orleans and in Latin American countries, the king cake often contains a coin, bean, pecan, peas or a replica of a tiny baby, that has been placed in it. In medieval France, the coin finder was expected to contribute to a worthy cause. In New Orleans, the person who received a piece of cake containing the “baby” usually provides the king cake for the next gathering of the season.

While king cakes are consumed from the Epiphany until Ash Wednesday, they gain in popularity as Mardi Gras nears. A traditional king cake is a sweet yeast bread, sprinkled with sugar or iced in Mardi Gras colors of green, gold and purple.

Locally, two bakeries are making king cakes. Dotty Smith, owner of Edgar’s Bakery, says king cakes are available at Edgar’s three locations: Colonnade, Patton Creek and off Cahaba Valley Road in Pelham.

It is a good idea to order ahead for the king cakes. A cake sells for about $25/35 and serves 15-20. Smith says the baby is included with the cake but the customer can put the baby in the cake after it is purchased. She says Edgar’s sold a lot of king cakes last year and is gearing up for another season. At Savage’s Bakery in Homewood, king cakes also will be available  and will serve 10 or more. The cakes are available by special order.

Some supermarket bakeries also may be offering king cakes as the Lenten season nears. King Arthur Flour, a Vermont-based company, is selling a king cake kit and a portion of the cost will be donated to the Salvation Army for its continuing hurricane relief efforts, to all orders received through Jan. 31.

The king cake kit includes: A one-pound cake mix (actually a sweetened yeast dough); almond paste for the filling; sugar glaze; a 4-ounce bag of each of the yellow, green and purple decorating colors. King Arthur Flour is an employee-owned company that has a reputation for being one of the finest flour companies in the country.

To order a king cake kit, call 800-827-6836. or visit the Web site www.bakerscatalogue.com.