King Cakes are an essential part of the Carnival season in New Orleans and the surrounding areas.

They have a long history and began as the method to choose the Queen of a krewe (a Carnival organization originally of society's "best" people.) There are many krewes. At a party a ring-shaped cake was served, with trinkets in it. The one who got the gold baby (or maybe it was a miniature crown) would be the king or queen. (I'm a bit rusty on particulars.)

Nowadays, King Cakes appear even before the start of Carnival season--Epiphany (Jan. 6) to Shrove Tuesday, which is followed by Ash Wednesday and Lent--a season of self-denial and fasting. Back before Vatican 2 really set in, the fast was abstaining from meat, between meal eating, and a bunch of other things. The abstention from meat is in the term Carnival--carne (meat) vale (farewell).

Back to King Cakes. When we first lived here in the early sixties the King Cakes you could buy were plain sweet dough rings, topped with bands of purple, green, and bright yellow (gold) sugar. And instead of a worthwhile trinket inside, they had a little plastic baby.

The person who gets the baby doesn't get anything special, unless you count the duty of bringing the next king cake.

Nowadays, king cakes come with a wide assortment of fillings and are usually iced with a white icing, topped by the green, purple, and gold of Carnival.

It's probably safe to say that there are a LOT of offices which have a king cake every few days. The history/political science office at Xavier probably had two or three cakes per week.

I guess I'll find out next week if the NCCROW office keeps the king cake tradition.

If you want to know more about Carnival traditions, see if you can find anything by googling Arthur Hardy. He's written the definitive guide to Mardi Gras.

One other note--Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday. In (much) earlier times, you had to get rid of all the animal products for the Lenten fast. From that came the custom of Shrove Tuesday pancake suppers. We don't do that here, but it's on many Christian church calendars. The pancakes use up eggs and butter--both animal products.

Also in earlier times, Lent was a time for giving up pleasures of the flesh.

Carnival season is kicked off here on Epiphany (January 6) with a streetcar parade by the Phorty Phunny Phellows. They hire a streetcar, decorate it, then ride it down St. Charles AVenue, tossing throws along the way.

This year they will be using the Canal Street route, because most of the St. Charles route is still closed down while they redo the electrical connections for the streetcars. The St. Charles streetcars, which are green, are running the Canal Street route now because the new Canal Street streetcars, which were red, all drowned in Katrina.


And it may RAIN tomorrow. When it RAINS the Tulane campus and roads leading to it flood. I may be home tomorrow.

(Added early 1/3: January 6 is the day the Magi (Kings)from the East supposedly visited Jesus. That's it's called King cake.)