March-Marching-Along

MARCHING ALONG

In like a lion...out like a lamb?

Depends very much

on where you stand.

Do your feet crunch snow?

Or sculpt the sand?

Are there cozy mittens on your hands?

Did the groundhog see

his shadow play

On February's prediction day?

In a Northern land, your friends might say:

"Wind, won't you blow

my cares all away?"

Friends in the South

Might play in the sun,

Yet every country makes its own fun.

No matter where your feet like to run,

"Top o' the Mornin'

To everyone!"

by Sharon Sinclair

Author's Note: In the winter months while visiting in Alabama,U.S.A, I had the chance to see another kind of "marching along". My friends and I attended lots of parades which are held to celebrate one of the most famous Carnival celebrations in the world:

Mardi Gras

("Fat Tuesday" in French).

Mardi Gras is a fun-filled time of parades, masquerade balls, and many social get-togethers with roots in the Christian religion (preparing for the start of the season of Lent). The parades have marching bands and beautiful floats from which are thrown strings of colorful plastic beads, decorated plastic throw cups, small toys and yummy "moon pies"

The colors of Mardi Gras are purple, green and gold:

purple refers to justice,

green indicates faith

and gold means power.

Many other colors are also found in the wide variety

of bead styles that are tossed to the crowds. I just learned this month about the color code of the beads,

and I was reminded about the color code in my Valentine's Day poem published in our Feb. newsletter.

So many things can be used as symbols for other ideas.

Poets just love that sort of thinking!

Four years ago, after my first Mardi Gras season, I wrote a song about the wonderful parades. When I get back to Canada, I'll post the lyrics on our Playground site.

Maybe Donna can be encouraged to set the words to music. I had so much fun this year when Donna and her husband visited us in Fairhope, Alabama. We went to three parades! We've posted some pictures for you to see. Some of these pictures were taken at a parade hosted by Kindergarten-Grade One children who attend a local school. Having been a primary teacher for many years, I found the children's parade to be the most fun of all!