Texas Now Magazine February 2014 | Page 6

Mardi
Gras
A Story By
Rolf & Penny Hong

Photo © John Nakata/Corbis

Photo Credit In Order
As Shown
© Ocean/Corbis,
© Paul Seheult/Westend61/Corbis,
© Ocean/Corbis,
© Christian Thomas/
fstop/Corbis,
© Georgianna Lane/
Garden Photo World/
Corbis

It was February. All around me the celebration was in full swing - confetti, masks,
streamers, music and laughter. It was a bright,
sunny day, a balmy 60 degrees, the sky as blue
as the Mediterranean Sea just beyond. I was
surrounded by a crowd of people, quick, active, energetic, glowing olive skin, dark hair,
black eyes. And then the highlight of the festivities - the traditional parade. Boisterous,
colorful, loud, a swirl of sounds, brilliant colors, floats, people, street jugglers, masked and
wonderfully bedecked celebrators, all winding their way through the ancient streets of
the Portuguese capital.
Lisbon, situated on a magnificent harbor, has
been called “home” by many peoples since the
Neolithic era and the Roman Empire. That’s a
long time - some several thousand years BC.
In that time they sired a handsome, olive
skinned, dark eyed race of people. Along the
way, they cultivated a custom of celebrating
the end of winter, and whether it’s called Mardi Gras or Carnival, it means shindig, bash,
celebration, party.

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Five days earlier I had embarked on this journey, left the frigid, double digit below freezing, ice and snow encrusted lands of staunch,
stoic Norwegian Lutherans, the “frozen
chosen” in Minnesota and found myself,

joining my father,
in
predominantly Catholic Lisbon
surrounded by what the locals call Carnival,
others call it Mardi Gras. This was fifty-five
years ago, I was in my teens, and I had never, ever imagined a party quite like this one.
Since then I have gone out of my way to enjoy
several more!
The celebration in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is
probably the most famous mega-carnival/
Mardi Gras in the world. And the one in
New Orleans is prominent in North Amer-