Monday, December 5, 2011

20 Days - A Fire for Papa Noel

In St. James Parish (which is French for Parish), Louisiana
and several of the other river parishes in Louisiana,
they have a nice Christmas tradition of building
big pyramids of wood on the levees in the days leading up to the Big Day.


Levees are great big piles of dirt on the side of the river
(Mississippi River)
that were constructed to hold back the river
so that you have a dry spot to build a fire.


On the night of Christmas, the locals
set the pyramids afire to show Papa Noel -

AKA

Santa,
Mr Claus,
The Man with all the toys,
Saint Nicolas,
That right jolly old elf
Old JellyBelly 
you get the idea.

Anyhow, they build them all up and down the levee


and  then just after dark


they light up the fires


to show him the way to their homes.

Probably so he won't get eaten (et-up?) by an alligator
while wandering around in the dark.

In other places, they use other forms of lumination to show
Old Saint Nick the way home.




I kind'a like the stick fires


Cause it's hard to toast a marshmallow on a lightbulb.


and I bet Papa Noel would like
a toasted marshmallow to eat after he finishes his gumbo.





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