Dimanche Gras

What did the minister do at your service yesterday (2006 February 26)? Did he or she proclaim the glories of God and maybe of Christ, or did the minister have some inspiring words to say? Did your service include New Orleans jazz? My service did. The minister (who by the way is a Blogger) led a service containing a lot of New Orleans jazz and even some dancing. It was a celebration.

Just two days before Mardi Gras, my church held a Dimanche Gras! That's right, Fat Sunday. It may have been a Unitarian Universalist service, but yesterday it was a service in the New Orleans religion (see my previous blog). It was a celebration. The service started off with a jazz funeral, then progressed to a poem or two, and then to a rousing playing by the Chez Roue Orchette band of "Down By the Riverside". Then it continued with a homily and concluded with "Liza Jane" and a dance number, and many of us danced in the aisles and near the podium.

As I said before, New Orleans will come back because New Orleans is a religion, and Mardi Gras and its other festivals are its services. I see that the real Mardi Gras is being held this year, despite the ruin that Hurricane Katrina caused that city. (The service at my church was dedicated to the victims and survivors of that storm.) It is a religion. It is a celebration. I know, because I saw such a celebration yesterday at my church.

I may very well go there next year to attend a mathematics convention, so I see it a positive sign that Mardi Gras is being held again. Long live New Orleans!