A Busy Busy Mardi Gras

Over the Mardi Gras break, I went to several parades. That Friday night, my cousin and her family came from Texas to stay at my house to experience their first Mardi Gras. We went to most of the parades on Saturday and Sunday, but I liked going to Endymion. Since it was my cousin's first Mardi Gras, she was extremely hyper. She was constantly jumping up and down, screaming like a mad woman, and waving her hands excessively hoping to get the attention of the float riders so she could catch the beads she really wanted. After experiencing her first parade on Saturday, she wanted to come back to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.Endymion

Krewe D'tat

On Monday, I did not go to any parades because I went to my grandma's house to celebrate the Vietnamese New Year (even though the New Year was on Sunday). The image below is a picture of red envelopes. On the New Year, I would get these red envelopes from my aunts, uncles, parents, and grandparents. Inside these red envelopes was money which they considered to be lucky.

Usually on New Years, for my family, we eat dinner and then all the women and children leave so the men can begin their nightlong gambling. While the men gamble, the women would sit in another room where they just eat the desserts of the new year and chat. For the children, they play this gambling game called bau cua ca cop (the image below). It is a game in which children use quarters to play and they place their quarters on the animal they wish to bet on the board. There are three dice and on the dice are pictures of the animals from the board. When the dice is rolled and whoever bets his or her quarter on those animals that appeared on the dice, he or she will collect the winnings.