Cracking Cascarones

Image by Simon Howden via freedigitalphoto.net

Once a year in Santa Barbara the streets get covered in confetti.

I doubt the clean up crew ever really feels they're ready

for the onslaught of Fiesta and it's trail of debris -

the millions of paper remnants it inevitably leaves.

If one in four of the thousands of annual visitors

buys four cascarones from the ladies on the perimeters,

that would mean at least ten thousand glittery eggs

leaving a pile of confetti down under your legs!

As the paper piles began to form not too far away,

I wondered what the cascarone was meant to say?

Though I find some joy smacking my friends on the head,

this act must mean more to someone who is long dead.

Sure enough, the tradition dates super far back,

although an exact date my resources did lack.

Perfumed powder was the very first cascarone filler,

but breaking the egg has always been the thriller.

I didn't expect to learn that they came from the Chinese.

Marco Polo carried them to Europe across land and seas.

Maximilian's wife Carlotta brought them over to Mexico
and there the people created the confetti version that we know.

They say cascarones commonly celebrate the end of lent.
 They are used to invite ladies to dance with a gent.
After forty days with no meat nor freedom to boogie
it breaks over your head, then you get down and groovy.

This year when I venture to get my taco and churro,
I think I'll look differently at that confetti down below.
Though we may not be using them for the religious purpose,
It is the time of year we party to let go of all that irks us.

Like many before us, we crack the cascarone as our sign
that it's time to party down in whatever way which you pine.
And, if you're not a fan of Fiesta's tasty Mexican food,
crack cascarones over dim sum.  They invented them, dude.

© Rachel Hoyt 2011.  All rights reserved.


Technorati Tags: Entertainment, Blogging, Fiesta, Humor, Mexico, Poetry