Mardi Gras -- A National Holiday?

Yesterday, Nola.com posted an article with the headline, "Zatarain's Starts Its Own Petition to Make Mardi Gras a National Holiday." (http://blog.nola.com/cest-la-nola/2009/02/zatarains_spearheading_petitio.html)

Even though the petition is obviously a marketing ploy (McCormick's bought out Zatarain's years ago, even though there is still a local production facility on the West Bank), it sparked a firestorm among bloggers! Overwhelmingly, the posters decried the notion that anyplace else could do justice to Carnival and its deep New Orleans traditions. I even kicked in my own two cents:

"Nope. Mardi Gras just won't work right anywhere else.

While you couldn't pay me to go to Bourbon Street again during Carnival, I surely do love the compulsion that overcomes me when the drums start beating and the floats start rolling -- I MUST grab MORE worthless plastic trinkets!

And I enjoy people-watching the characters in the Quarter on Fat Tuesday (from a safe distance, of course!). The character factor -- that's probably key to the inability of anyplace else hosting a successful Mardi Gras celebration -- the rest of the country is simply too stodgy! No place on the planet knows how to cut loose and laissez les bon temps rouler like our NOLA. Friends and family from across the nation still don't "get" that we don't have mail delivery on Mardi Gras, much less why we stand in the cold and rain on the muddy neutral ground to yell at costumed and masked people to 'throw me somethin', Mista!'. My daughter was aghast when she transferred from LSU to UALR and actually had to go to classes during Mardi Gras week! Yep -- the rest of the world that only experiences "Tuesday" couldn't get it right.

While Zatarain's is a nice little business to have in Gretna, its products have WAY too much salt! Let the rest of the world eat Zatarain's -- we'll keep Mardi Gras."

Imagine. Someplace else in the country thinking that it could carry off even one day of celebration, much less an entire season! Why, other places don't even believe in kowtowing to faux royalty! Those of us who live in NOLA appreciate the significance of a crown.