OPENING STATEMENTS FEBRUARY 2019 WWW.LAWYERSREADYTOFIGHT.COM 317-934-9725 | INFO@RDLAWOFFICE.COM
KREWES, KING CAKE, AND CULTURE T he F ascinating H istory of M ardi G ras
FROM THE DESKS OF Razumich & Delamater
Love (and football) is in the air!
As I’mwriting this, our hometown Indianapolis Colts are preparing for their second playoff game in a season that NOBODY would have expected to end in a playoff run. At the start of the season, our coaching staff was in disarray, there were questions about whether our quarterback would ever be able to throw a football again, and there were no leaders on the team. Then we went on to start the season 1-5. Long-time Indianapolis residents will remember Coach Jim Mora’s infamous postgame interview rant about “Playoffs? PLAYOFFS?” That was the general feeling at the time.
Unlike most holidays, Mardi Gras is associated with a place as much as it is a time. When people think of Mardi Gras, they automatically think of New Orleans. The celebration, held on a Tuesday in either February or March, is a point of pride for NOLA residents but is often misunderstood by the general public. Here’s what you need to know about America’s most regional holiday.
Then they turned it around, and through hard work managed a season that’s not over yet.
The reason I’m bringing this up is that a lot of people who come to us feel like their situation is hopeless, and that nothing can be done to improve their chances at avoiding the worst possible penalties on their cases. That’s simply not true. Our Firm has shown time and time again that hard work and perseverance can get better results than defeatism. It’s what we promise and what we believe in.
THE DATE
Mardi Gras doesn’t follow the traditional holiday calendar patterns we’re familiar with. It doesn’t fall on a static date, like Christmas, or a specific day within a month, like Memorial Day. Instead, it follows the pattern of Easter, which is based on a more complicated formula. Easter takes place on the Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox (the start of spring). An ecclesiastical full moon, as opposed to a regular full moon, is determined by Catholic church tables, not by lunar patterns. While that part is pretty complex, determining the date of Mardi Gras is much easier: It’s 47 days before Easter. As such, it can fall on any Tuesday between Feb. 3 and March 9, hence the name Mardi Gras, or “Fat Tuesday.”
Also, Go Colts!
THE PLACE
While New Orleans is undoubtedly the place everyone associates with Mardi Gras, it is not where the holiday originated in America. That honor belongs to Mobile, Alabama, which organized the first widespread Mardi Gras celebrations in 1703. As more people moved to New Orleans, which became the capital of Louisiana in 1723, the holiday took root there.
-John Razumich and Joe Delamater
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