Let The Good Times Roll! Feb. 27- March 4, 2003 Mardi Gras is rapidly spreading its colorful spirit around the world and is the fastest growing celebration in the New World, especially in the USA. Currently there is a movement underway to have Mardi Gras declared a National Holiday - check it out at www.mardigras.com and sign the petition. This will be the eleventh season for the Fat Tuesday observance in Red River and the six-day party is a great way to celebrate the end of winter and the approach of spring. It has become our own colorful version of a Winter Carnival. There's only one slight problem: the date of Mardi Gras changes every year. It's not like Christmas or the Fourth of July which occur on the same day year after year. This year Mardi Gras will be March 4. Why? Because Fat Tuesday precedes Ash Wednesday, and always occurs forty days before the most holy Christian observance of Easter. Why? Ask the Archbishop of Constantinople who was in charge of such things many long years ago when Byzantium was the seat of holy power in the world. He made the rules and nobody has changed them. Not even Franklin Roosevelt. (Although he did try.)