Today: Mardi Grass Celebration

 🎭 Mardi Gras Celebration

What is Mardi Gras? 

It is a lively festival full of musical parades, delicious food, colorful floats, and the excitement of wearing purple, green, and gold beads along with vibrant masquerades.

📜 Mardi Gras Tradition

• The term “Mardi Gras” comes from French and means “Fat Tuesday.”
• It is called "Fat" or "Great" because it’s a day of feasting, king cakes, and joyful parties.
• Lent begins the day after Mardi Gras with Ash Wednesday, marking a time of reflection and fasting.

🍰 King Cake

A King Cake is a traditional cake linked to Mardi Gras and also to the Feast of Epiphany, celebrated twelve days after Christmas.

Serving Tradition:

• A tiny trinket, called “la fève”, is hidden inside the cake before baking.
• When the cake is cut and served, the person who finds the trinket becomes honorary king or queen for the day.

Easy Recipe:

Easy Pillsbury King Cake Recipe

🎨 Mardi Gras Activities

1. Create a Masquerade Mask – Use recycled supplies from home.
2. Bake a King Cake – Follow the recipe and enjoy the tradition.
3. Coloring Fun – Use Mardi Gras-themed coloring pages.
4. Lenten Storytime for Kids – Check out: Lent Children’s Book

🎉 Motto:
🎭💜💚💛 Laissez les bons temps rouler! 🎉🥳🍰🎶✨

 

¿Qué es Mardi Gras?

El término "Mardi Gras" (palabra francesa) significa "martes gordo" y se refiere al martes antes de Cuaresma. Se llama "Grasa" o "Gran" porque se asocia con la buena comida y festivales. 

Mardi Gras es una tradición similar a los Carnavales de Rio, Barranquilla, New Orleans y todos los países que celebran con desfiles de carrozas y bailes tradicionales antes del Miércoles de Ceniza cuando inicia la Cuaresma.  Usualmente se hace la Rosca de Reyes o de Mardi Gras/Carnival.

 

El ritual de servir: con la galette llega la tradición de "sortear al rey y a la reina". Se esconde una baratija (llamada "la fève") en la galette (antes de hornearla, suele introducirse dentro del relleno de frangipane). Después se corta la galette y se sirve, y la persona que encuentra la figurita en su trozo, se convierte en rey o reina honorario del día.

Actividades para niños: Hoja de colorear. 

Visita: https://coloringcafe.com/coloring-pages/page/8/

El inicio de la Cuaresma inicia después de Mardi Gras

 Actividades de Cuaresma:

https://luzdelmes.blogspot.com/2017/02/40-days-and-40-activities-for-lent-2017.html

Recetas para la Cuaresma:

https://luzdelmes.blogspot.com/2019/02/recetas-luzdelmes-cuaresma-lent-recipes.html

                              Receta: http://www.keiladawson.com/easy-pillsbury-king-cake-recipe/

 ¡Mañana es Miércoles de Ceniza!

http://luzdelmes.blogspot.com/2019/02/ash-wednesday-miercoles-de-ceniza.html

Maritza Martínez Mejía

Mother, Author, Educator and Translator

Member: FWA, Board of Advisors MCBD, ANLMI,

Read to Me Day Embassador

FREE Reading Activities visit: www.luzdelmes.com

Received Crystal Apple, VCB Poetry, Latino Book Awards, Author’s Talk, Premio Verso Dorado, 2022

 

🌿 LuzDelMes Lenten Recipes - Recetas LuzDelMes para la Cuaresma

 Faith, Fast, and Food at the Family Table

What Is Lent?

Lent is a sacred season in the Christian calendar dedicated to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving as we prepare our hearts for Easter.

It begins after Mardi Grass  on Ash Wednesday and lasts forty days, recalling Jesus’ forty days in the desert. Sundays are not counted among the forty days, since each Sunday is a celebration of the Resurrection — a “little Easter.”

The day before Lent begins is known as Mardi Gras, meaning “Fat Tuesday,” traditionally a time to enjoy festive foods before entering a more penitential season.

What Is Fasting and Abstinence?

In both Eastern Catholic and Orthodox traditions, fasting and abstinence are important spiritual disciplines.

• Abstinence (beginning at age 14) traditionally means refraining from meat — the flesh and its products.
• Fasting (from age 18 until the 60th birthday) generally involves limiting the quantity of food consumed.

The spiritual purpose of these practices is beautifully expressed by St. Augustine in his Sermon on Prayer and Fasting:

“Abstinence purifies the soul, elevates the mind, and subordinates the flesh to the spirit.”

Fasting is not merely about food — it is about freedom. It helps us reorder our desires so that Christ becomes our deepest hunger.

🌸Lenten Foods: Simple, Nourishing, Meaningful

During Lent, many families prepare simple meals such as:

• Fish
• Soups
• Eggs
• Legumes and vegetables

Cooking as a Spiritual Practice

Lent is a beautiful opportunity to:

• Cook together as a family
• Teach children the meaning of sacrifice
• Share stories of faith at the table
• Transform ordinary meals into moments of grace

When we prepare simple foods with gratitude and mindfulness, our kitchens become places of prayer.

Let us embrace fasting and abstinence not as restriction, but as renewal — a way to rediscover joy, discipline, and communion.

 Fun Cuisine for Lent… and Easter Too!

Simple recipes can carry us through the penitential season and lead us into the celebration of Easter with hearts prepared and joyful.

Click the link below to access this week’s recipe: 

Carrot cream

 

Lentil Soup

Ramen Noodle

This year, I am incorporating a creative touch by adopting the Japanese tradition of ramen and preparing rich vegetable creams and soups — warm, comforting, and meatless dishes that bring both nourishment and intention to the table.

Enjoy it!

For More Recipes Visit: http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2012/02/recipes-for-lent-from-archives.html

Recetas LuzDelMes para Cuaresma 

La fe, el ayuno y la comida en la mesa familiar

¿Qué es el ayuno y la abstinencia?

La Cuaresma para los ritos católicos y ortodoxos, tienen leyes para el ayuno y la abstinencia. En general, la ley de la abstinencia prohíbe comer la carne, productos con sangre y médula ósea. La abstinencia es obligatoria después de alcanzar la edad de 14 y el ayuno se convierte en obligatorio a partir de los 18 años hasta 60 años.

Los motivos para la práctica de abstinencia son bien explicados por San Agustín en su sermón sobre la oración y el ayuno: "la Abstinencia purifica el alma, eleva la mente, subordina la carne al espíritu."

Vamos a aprovechar el ayuno y la abstinencia de la Cuaresma para cocinar y comer con nuestros hijos. La comida más común para la Cuaresma son pescados, sopas, cremas y huevos. Este año he adaptado la tradición Japonesa del Ramen y las cremas de vegetales. 

¿Cuál es tu receta preferida? – ¡Compártela en los comentarios!

 

¡Celebremos Nuestra Fe!

Poemas y Reflexiones: www.luzdelmes.com

Thank you for your support!🌷 #LuzDelMes 🌠  

Maritza MartineMejia

Mother, Theologian, Author, Educator and Translator

Member: Read your Wold Board of Trusteed, Read to Me, Day! Ambassador 

FREE Reading Activities visit: www.luzdelmes.com

Received Crystal Apple, VCB Poetry 2015, Latino Book Awards 2016, Premio Verso Dorado 2022