Mardi Gras, and all the fun a good ol’ lively French-fest can bring with it, is right around the corner. Mardi Gras hits the calendar a bit early this year, February the 21st, so you have just a little over 2 weeks to begin planning for your big Mardi Gras party or even a super sexy as well as mysterious masquerade ball. Whether your trip to the Big Easy is real or just done in big Louisiana party style, we have all the hot supplies to make you look as if you are ready to go hit Bourbon Street and “laissez les bons temps rouler” (let the good times roll!)
What is Mardi Gras all about anyway? For you Mardi Gras rookies that want to know why you should celebrate, as well as what the fuss is all about, here’s a basic crash course. Mardi Gras, literally translated from French to English, means Fat Tuesday. Fat Tuesday is a traditional day of feasting (can you say eat, drink and be merry?) that is done the night before Ash Wednesday, beginning the traditional Catholic period of Lent. Lent is 40 days of fasting that occurs up until Easter. French settlers that centered in the New Orleans area first brought this tradition to America. The tradition of Mardi Gras runs deep in Louisiana until this very day.
The Big Easy: Because of Mardi Gras’ early history associated with this southern region of our beloved country, the celebration of Mardi Gras has been heavily associated with and truly embraced by the people of New Orleans. Just because you don’t live in New Orleans, however, it doesn’t mean that you can’t get into the spirit and the true Louisiana flavor of this exciting and flamboyant holiday!
Masks and Masquerade: Masks have been worn for years as part of the celebration of Mardi Gras. Venetian style masks and many other creative, elaborate as well as decorative masks are part of the fun and tradition surrounding Mardi Gras. Hiding ones identity has gone along with the celebratory theme of this holiday for hundreds of years, and there is some logic to the anonymity factor involved. If no one knows who you actually are, traditionally, it’s been easier to really let loose and let your Cajun swagger truly get its groove on without worrying about tomorrow.
Tradition of Throws: Since the late 1800’s, some of the authentic Mardi Gras tradition is to have many parades and floats as part of the celebrating that goes on in the city. Float riders are known to throw out many items to Mardi Gras revelers which include plastic beads, doubloons, cups and small stuffed animals. Even if you aren’t planning a parade or float as part of your Mardi Gras festivities, you are still going to want to include some of these unique and traditional items as part of your Fat Tuesday celebration.
Party, Wild French Style: If you are planning a Mardi Gras themed party, make sure you have all the sexy glittery costumes, elaborate masks, face paint, crazy hats, sparkling gloves and other ‘out there’ accessories that you may need to create a Fat Tuesday look that will be absolutely unforgettable. Whether you are looking to be a Carnival King or Queen or even that wacky or sexy Court Jester, our costumes and accessories made just for your Mardi Gras celebration will definitely put the ooooo back into your la-la. To Mardi Gras say OUI!
Superheroes-There probably isn’t a kid alive that hasn’t played “superhero” at one point or another in his/her life. With so many great and powerful characters to choose from, it will be very easy to find one that fits into the superhero mold that you imagined when you were a child. Caped and flying through the air, using superhuman strength and powers, scaling walls with ease and overcoming evil at every possible turn is just plain cool, not to mention fun. What’s not to love about being a superhero? 
Rock Stars-With air guitar in hand, many of us as children found our selves deep in the fantasy of being a real Rock Star. We envisioned being up on a stage, rocking out with fabulously loud music blaring out of huge amps, hungry, screaming fans in the audience and a stage nearly set afire with cool pyrotechnics. Rock Stars seemed to live a life of perfect fantasy and more than a few of us wanted to be one. Perhaps many of us still do.
Firemen or Policemen-Considered by many to be the ultimate local heroes, most of us as children played games like cops and robbers, where good always prevailed over evil and the bad guys were hauled away into a pretend jail. Children often fantasize about being firefighters as well—driving that big red truck with the siren a-blazing as it roars down the street. Performing rescue operations was all in day’s work for the brave firefighter, no wonder it’s a favorite pretend imaginative character for kids.
Princess-Nearly every little girl goes through her ‘princess’ phase. Dressed in appropriate royal attire from tiaras down to glass slippers, her regal and elegant appearance brought handsome men to her in droves. Well, that was the theory anyway. Princesses often found themselves in dire circumstances that required some handsome hottie to come by and do the rescuing. Hey, what can I say, even little girls are smart and I guess we all learned young what worked. Being a princess is a sweet gig and it’s no wonder why many of us wanted to be one if only in our imaginations.
Cheerleader- Beautiful, sexy and popular, many girls fantasize about being a cheerleader. Little girls do dance routines, cartwheels and flips in their yards as they dream about one day cheering their team onto victory while their pom poms flip about overhead. From the super sexy professional sports team cheerleaders (Can you say Dallas Cowboys?) to the more traditional cheer girls found at your ol’ alma mater, the cheerleader is a popular childhood dream that might be fun to re-live. A little bizarre, but definitely totally hilarious, grown men have been known to dress up as cheerleaders, too. 
The Fourth of July can sneak up on us without much warning. Just as all the school graduation ceremonies and Father’s day activities are winding down, another holiday weekend is here. Because the 4th is at the beginning of the month, sometimes it’s easy to forget to make your plans ahead of time. If you start now you can make your plans for a weekend that has great holiday potential. The Fourth of July occurs on a Monday this year, which also means a 3-day weekend for most people. Make sure your Fourth of July is filled with all sorts of good patriotic summer fun. Here’s 6 great ideas to get your Fourth of July holiday started. 
