Planning for Mardi Gras begins on Jan. 6 — the Epiphany in the Christian calendar, also the 12th day of Christmas.
Sometimes, it’s a short buildup to Mardi Gras, but this year with Easter falling later, it’s been a longer season.
Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday, the last day before Lent and a celebration filled with food and drinks before Lent begins and you move into the Easter season.
At Bayou Bakery in Arlington, Virginia, dozens of boxes of famous King Cakes were stacked high, as people get ready to celebrate Mardi Gras.
The King Cake is typically a cinnamon cake or pastry with cream cheese icing that’s purple, green and gold. The colors stand for “justice, faith and power,” said Bayou Bakery owner Simone Rathle.
The plastic baby in the middle of a cake symbolizes the baby Jesus greeted by the Three Wise Men on the Epiphany.
She said the original cakes used to have a magic bean in them, but it evolved to the plastic baby for the religious aspect of the holiday.
“It’s good tradition, good luck, to find the piece of cake with it,” Rathle said. “It’s good luck. I mean, you’re king for the day, queen for the day! It’s fabulous.”
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