Happy Fat Tuesday!

I love Catholic Holidays. I wasn't raised Catholic, or Christian, or really any form of faith. I went to Unitarian chuch from time to time. If anyone asks I always say I am a devout Unitarian with atheist tendencies. To say I really love Catholic holidays, and earnestly mean it, probably shocks at least two people in this world. Here's why I love Catholic Holidays: Good Friday, Friday the 13th, Christmas and Fat Tuesday. I know some of these aren't really Catholic but flow with me. I was born in Boston and I didn't really know there were any Christians besides Catholics until I was about 10 and learned that Episcopalians weren't a sect of Catholics. I didn't know about baptists until I was about 12, Hindus and Budhists until 15. I knew there were jews because one of my best friends growing up was Jewish but I didn't know what they believed, I just knew she didn't get to celebrate Christmas and had to eat really gross food for Passover. When we were growing up this good friend up told me gefilte fish was made from carp testicles and I believed him. To this day I still can't eat the stuff, I gag. Here's a cute story about gefilte fish. Back to Catholic holidays...
My daughter, Noodle, was born on Good Friday the 13th. She was a c-section so I was laying on my back with my arms out to the side and pinned down to an operating table on Good Friday. Great. It also happened to be the 13th, she was born on Good Friday the 13th. If you look here or here you can see that there are a few ideas behind Friday the thirteenth and it is split between Christian and Norse superstititions. I am going with the idea it comes from the bible. The CrystalLinks website says it is good luck to be born on Friday the 13th. I hope so.
Christmas is fun because you get to see family and watch children open presents. As my cousin says 'We celebrate the great god Santa.' I have been to midnight mass for Christmas a few times and it is a wonderful service, the hope of the poeple is palpable throughout the mass and the churches are beautifully decked out and everyone is so joyous. This year we also celebrated Hannukah because I really like celebrating the idea of miracles and Noodle goes to a JCC for pre-school and she asked if we could so we said sure. Everyone had to listen to me butcher Hebrew for 8 days but they seemed to have recovered now. Hubby may still have a ringing in his ear, I will have to ask. Back to the Catholic holidays.
I like Fat Tuesday because it is all about debauchery before lent, the storm before the quiet. Catholics get away with stuff like that, they get to repent after the festivities. I don't see the baptists getting to celebrate Carnivale without a whole lot of guilt. Also Fat Tuesday offers King's Cake and I love cake:
"Epiphany is also traditionally when celebrants serve King's Cake, a custom that began in France in the 12th century. Legend has it that the cakes were made in a circle to represent the circular routes that the Wise Men took to find Jesus, in order to confuse King Herod and foil his plans of killing the Christ Child. In the early days, a coin or bean was hidden inside the cake, and whoever found the item was said to have good luck in the coming year. In Louisiana, bakers now put a small baby, representing the Christ Child, in the cake; the recipient is then expected to host the next King Cake party." from the American Catholic website
Although I really like celebrating a lot of holidays in general. When I was a kid we always celebrated Beethoven's birthday with cupcakes. He was a Catholic. See, another Catholic holiday...