Mardis Gras/Carnaval

Last Sunday on our way to church we saw a guy in lederhosen  walking down the street. Keith looked at me with raised eyebrows. "Carnaval," I said.
That one word explained it all. From our region in the Netherlands south to the Belgian border children have their school spring break because Carnaval falls on this week. Towns like ours will have Carnaval clubs who elected princes and princess on November 11. For reasons which I cannot explain, the men will wear these elaborate peaked hats with long pheasant feathers streaming out the back. (You can see examples from the club on our town.)
Carnaval has a lot in common with Mardis Gras. They both fall on the "fat Tuesday" before Ash Wednesday. Keith and I met in Louisiana, where people know how to celebrate Mardis Gras. We've  walked through the teaming streets of an all-out, hedonistic New Orleans Mardis Gras. And we've gone to a small-town Mardis Gras parade in Cajun country. Our daughters brought back Mardis Gras beads to put on the Christmas tree.
There's some irony in that. That Christmas tree has its roots in pre-Christian pagan ritual. And Ash Wednesday aside, it would be hard to find anything as pagan as Carnaval or Mardis Gras.
Fellow Christians, remember this when you see people walking down the street in lederhosen: hedonists have nothing on us. We're Christians. We can party like the Bridegroom's with us.