Mardi Gras is my favorite non-holiday of the year. Valentine’s Day is great if you happen to have a special someone to share it with (who isn’t romantically challenged, anyway.) St. Patrick’s Day is for frat boys and drinkers of green beer. Mardi Gras, though, is one of those days that can be anything you need it to be. Just broke up with your guy? Grab your sister-cats, hit the town and show that looser what he’s missing out on! Single and happy to be that way? Grab yourself a party mask and let your inner wild child run free! Long-time couple? Dress up as matching harlequin clowns and do something truly unique for your date night! Just got engaged? Try a Creole-style mach wedding!
Whoa-whoa-whoa, you say. Mach weddings? Like those goofy things you did as a kid at the church cake-walk where you badgered your brother into standing up with you because you wanted the fake ring? Sort of. Keep in mind that most of the Mardi Gras traditions date back many hundreds of years, some almost a thousand years. Mardi Gars as we know it in most of the United States, is based upon medieval French peasantry traditions. They would dress up and literally mach the upper-classes. A lot of those traditions have changed over the years, but in the back woods Creole populations f Louisiana and Texas, it’s done today much as it was back in the 1500s.
Another old tradition, found in various forms throughout the world, was the mach wedding. Not so long ago, poor rural folk had to wait for a circuit judge or preacher to come by if they wanted to get married. This could take weeks or even months and few young couples wanted to wait that long. Those old traditions are many and vary greatly between cultures, communities and even continents. The one most commonly known here in the United States was called “jumping the broom.” It was, by no means, the only one. The mach weddings you might have participated in as a child are our culture’s way of remembering those days.
Both of these old traditions have fascinated me most of my life. As a writer, I have always wanted to incorporate them into a story. In my latest release, a fantasy romance novella titled “Equal Partners,” I went one step farther. I combined both of them and added a little touch of strange. Lleu, an ancient elfin warlord, finds himself accidentally mated to a Creole hoodoo root doctor right before Mardi Gras and subsequently, finds himself taking center stage in the festivities. The entire scene takes on an air of hilarity as Cissy tries to make the event a little less traumatic for her bewildered new husband.
I do not know for a certainty that Creoles today still have mach weddings as a part of their Mardi Gras celebrations, but considering their love of pranks and great fun, I think it is likely. I do know that they still dress up in psychedelic costumes and run around chasing chickens. One day, I hope to get to witness one of these Creole Mardi Gras carnivals for myself.
~ Rebecca
RebeccaLGillan.com
Equal Partners - The Wild Lords 2
An ancient warlord on a mission.
A sultry hoodoo enchantress steeped in magic.
Will their passion bind them together or burn them?
Passion heats up when Lleu, the oldest of the fabled Hunt Lords, tracks a royal assassin to the heart of Louisiana bayou country. He didn't expect to find a sultry hoodoo enchantress who fires his blood and makes him long for her forbidden love. Will their burning desire be enough to make the fiercely independent Cissy accept the scarred elfin warrior’s claim on her?
Genre: Contemporary, Fantasy
Length: 28,110 words
http://www.bookstrand.com/equal-partners
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