Le Ball Masque...

Nobody could stand a Thanksgiving Day dinner every day of the year. There can only be mountains if there are also valleys. It is a pity that the Reformation did away not only with most of the sacraments and all of the sacramentals, but also, unfortunately, with the very breath of the Mystical Body — that wonderful, eternal rhythm of high and low tide that makes up the year of the Church: times of waiting alternate with times of fulfillment, the lean weeks of Lent with the feasts of Easter and Pentecost, times of mourning with seasons of rejoicing. Modern man lost track of this. Deep down in the human heart, however, is imbedded the craving to celebrate, and, in a dumb way, the other craving to abstain, perhaps to atone. In general, these cravings are no longer directed in seasonal channels, as they are for the Catholic, or even for the aborigine who participates in some tribal religious belief..... 

It should be our noble right and duty to bring up our children in such a way that they become conscious of high tide and low tide, that they learn that there is "a time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance." The rhythm of nature as it manifests itself in the four seasons, in day and night, in the individual's heartbeat and breathing — this rhythm we should learn to recognize, and to treat with more reverence. Modern man has become used to turning day into night and night into day according to his whim or pleasure. He has managed to lose contact completely with himself. He has lost the instinct for the right food and drink, stuffing himself with huge quantities of the wrong things and feeding himself sick. But worst of all, and this sounds almost ridiculous, in the process of growing up he forgot the right kind of breathing....

Again, it is our faithful friend, Holy Mother Church, who leads her children first back to nature in order to make them ready to receive supernatural grace. "Gratia supponit naturam."

Looked upon in this light, the weeks of Carnival are a most necessary time for the individual as well as for families and communities. This period is set aside for us to "let off steam," "to have a good time." And for this we need company. Therefore, Carnival is most obviously the season for parties and family get-togethers...with the avowed intention of having that good time together. Carnival is the time to be social, to give and to receive invitations for special parties. It is the time to celebrate as a parish group... 

(Maria von Trapp, Around the Year with the Trapp Family, Carnival or Mardi Gras).

In our community, we have a tradition that we look forward to every year.  On Fat Tuesday we cook up everything in the house that we are sacrificing for Lent and have a movie marathon...usually a series that we don't watch very often like "The Lord Of The Rings" or the "Bourne Trilogy" (edited, of course).  This year a good friend decided to add another tradition to help us prepare for our time of penance: a masquerade!!! 

Our friends asked us to help them organize and teach the dances ("ABSOLUTELY YES WHEN DO I START?!?!") so we started meeting at our house on Monday to go through all the steps.  Mrs. H. was wanting to do a more Jane Austen themed evening, so we collected songs and dances from the Period Era...everyone was watching "Pride and Prejudice" and "Emma" all week to get in the mood.  All of us girls were exchanging dresses and hair styles and frantically trying to find "the perfect mask"...not to mention trying to learn to dance the "Ship's Cook".

On Friday we all gathered to decorate the room with tulle and lights, and practice more dancing...

Saturday night the room was almost filled...

We danced for nearly five hours straight!!! I even got to help call one or two dances because Mrs. H.'s voice was starting to give out...everyone had a wonderful time and the only people sitting down were those who didn't want to dance or were resting.  We're already planning a May Day dance for after Lent...