French Club did a great job bringing Mardi Gras to GJ this year. For the first time in three years, Mrs. Cronk was able to plan out a great celebrations here at the school in the cafeteria. French Club thought that it would be a good idea to bring it back for fun it provides.

Mardi Gras is a celebration that when most people think of it, they think of partying in the streets of New Orleans, but it is much more than that. There is different foods that represent different religious beliefs. Typically, it is the last day for indulgence and a lot of times overindulgence before Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday represents the beginning of lent where people tend to give up something in offering to God, which is why in some parts of the world it is celebrated as Pancake Day, where people just eat pancakes all day.

Lent lasts forty days, which is the time Jesus spent wandering the desert. It is celebrated in many different ways, depending on where you are at in the world. Most of the time the celebrations include lots of food, music, dancing, and costumes. It is meant to be a good time and for people to enjoy themselves while also bettering themselves by giving up something, such as soda or junk food.

At the party,  they had the King Cake, crepes, and many other French influenced foods. The King Cake consists of three different colors. It has purple, which represents justice. It also has green which represents faith and gold that represents power. Inside the King Cake, you hide a small plastic baby. If you find the baby in your cake, that means you have to buy the next years King Cake and it is also supposed to bring good luck.

This year’s party was about more than just having a good time celebrating Mardi Gras. French Club invited anyone and only charged a small fee of $5 to get in. This means any of the kids that can not afford a good meal everyday got to have some fresh food and there was no limit to how much they could eat.