Mardi Gras as a Full-Blown Holiday

Happy (belated) Mardi Gras!

Although my wife is from New Orleans, this year has been my first time to experience the full blown season -- yes, season -- of Mardi Gras, now that I am a transplanted New Orleanian.

With the obvious exception of the numerous parades, the lead-in is a little like that for a Bizarro-World version of Christmas. There's a lighthearted, benevolent feel to it, and people decorate their houses for it, although generally not to the ridiculous excess you sometimes see with Christmas or Halloween. My in-laws gave us a couple of wreaths -- in green, gold, and purple, of course -- for our front door. That was about right.

I'd originally thought about posting on this yesterday, but took on an interesting news item instead -- only to have my memory jogged this morning by the following question (Item 3 there.) at Ask a Manager:

Image by Ugur Arpaci, via Unsplash, license.

Is Mardi Gras OK for work?

I'm originally from a region of the U.S. that goes big on the whole Mardi Gras season (fun fact: it's a whole season!) but am now in an environment that has barely realized it's happening. I wore some beads into the office today, greeted a coworker with "Happy Mardi Gras!" and brought a king cake for the staff breakroom. I think this is pretty low-key and ok for our work environment. But I'm also realizing I don't really know how secularized it actually is in much of the U.S.

I am personally atheist, and I know plenty of other people celebrate it totally divorced from its religious roots (cough Sydney cough). For me, it's a nice way to share my regional-cultural heritage and celebrate joy in a dreary season. But Mardi Gras is at its core a very, very Catholic celebration, and I would never put out a Christmas tree in the office. Or bring an Easter basket. If colleagues wanted to do an organized "give something up for Lent" challenge I would be HORRIFIED.

Should I chill out about the holiday in the office? Or is it closer to a cultural exchange, like a Mexican coworker sharing Día de Muertos traditions?

[Alison Green Replies:] A cultural exchange is a fine way to look at it. Obviously you shouldn't insist that people who don't want to celebrate it should embrace it anyway (as people love to do with Christmas), but it's fine to observe it yourself (i.e., the beads) and bring in king cake to share. [bold added, links removed]

I agree with the sentiment I bolded above, and welcome this new holiday to my calendar with a caveat.

That caveat is this: The holiday, as a respite from the privation Christians are supposed to inflict upon themselves especially during Lent, reminds me of the "holidays" from sales taxes Republicans like to tout instead of, say, repealing them or permanently lowering them, or even reducing the spending that makes them seem necessary.

The idea that we need permission from a church to celebrate life is even more ridiculous than the idea that the government is "helping" us with school expenses by taking less of our money from us.

The premise is a covert admission that something is fundamentally wrong -- and the holiday distracts the unwary from some thinking about that admission long enough to forget about it and accept a bad status quo.

As someone well aware of the issue -- and who will raise it when the right opportunities present themselves -- I'm more than happy to have a new reminder to celibrate being alive, and I hope this holiday long outlives the unhappy circumstances of its birth.

-- CAV

P.S. I forgot to mention in my analogy to Christmas, the lack of social pressure to stress out with gift-purchasing (along with outdoing the neighbors on decor). That's a great feature, so far, although I am not so sure the members of the Krewes -- the folks who plan all the parades, balls, and social gatherings -- share that luxury.