OT: February 28
this year Mardi Gras happens to fall on this date.
Already I've seen considerable news coverage of NOLA Mardi Gras celebration because of the hurricane devastation.
Mardi Gras is the last day of carnival before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter.
from Wikipedia
"The Germanic origin of the word Lent (e.g. Anglo-Saxon lencten) originally meant the season of spring, referring to the lengthening of days as reflected in a word for March: Lenctenmonat."
all that's significant as we march toward spring.
in Minnesaota February 28 is better known as the day the fish houses have to be removed from the frozen lakes in the lower 2/3 of the state (March 15 in the upper 1/3). People may be partying elsewhere, but here we mark the occasion by taking the fish houses off the lake. In many families, this means that a retreat, a sanctuary from the suffocating presence of each other through the long enclosed winter months is gone and the old man will be back in the house nights and weekends. Sure spring is coming but now we have to face March.
Garrison Keillor described March in Minnesota as a lesson for all those who don't drink what a hangover is like. In so many neighborhoods in Minnesota the snow cover will be melting to reveal the piles of dog poo and empty bottles. Impatience for spring is met with more of the same, hence the phrase bleak mid-winter.
post edited by wrench45us - 2006/02/28 08:47:20