Ash Wednesday New Orleans Style

You haven’t experienced Ash Wednesday until you experience it in New Orleans. It’s like Night of the Living Dead around here with all the people walking around with gray ash crosses on their foreheads.
It’s like the city is filled with vampires.
I’m assuming the ashes stand for purification and cleansing, (I’ve asked around, but have yet to google it)which the city needs after the Mardi Gras festivities! My neighbor, Allison, was telling me how she planned to take her 4-year-old and 5-year-old, George and Maggie, to noon mass, but instead decided to take them to the 4pm mass. It turned out that at the noon mass, the priest said, “Is there a doctor present?” and then collapsed, dead, right in front of the congregation! How’s that for divine providence? Allison was relieved she had decided on a different church time.
Yesterday, we were playing outside with George and Maggie and they wanted to play church. They outlined pews for us to sit in, then George and Annabelle were the priests. They sang songs to us in another language they made up, and then filled their palms with gray sidewalk chalk which they then rubbed on our foreheads.
I wonder how these formative years spent in New Orleans affect these munchkins. What are they taking in?I hope they absorb the heart of New Orleans; the music that bubbles up from the earth and plays on every corner; the sparkles and treasures made from nothing; the desire to create a unique and incredibly rich community; the rich and fecund atmosphere of food, dancing, and a flair for the dramatic. I hope they’re taking in the magic.