LITTLE ROCK — What began more than a half century ago as a fun snack for a men's ministry is now a Mardi Gras tradition that draws hundreds of people to St. Mary's Episcopal Church in El Dorado.
One February afternoon in 1956, about a dozen men got together under the church oak tree to enjoy a sack of oysters.
"We shucked them and ate them raw," recalled longtime member T.M. Byrd. "We did that [annually] for a couple of years. Then one of the wives decided she wanted some oysters too."
Soon, the men had the makings of a party. Tuesday will mark the church's 54th annual "Oyster Supper."
On the menu will not only be oysters on the half shell but also red beans and rice and king cake. The traditional Mardi Gras dessert is filled with cream cheese and topped with green, gold and purple icing. Inside the cake is typically a plastic baby meant to represent the baby Jesus, the King of Kings.
"We'll Mardi Gras it up," Tommy Choate, the event's chairman, said. "We'll have the beads and decorations."
Traditionally, many Episcopal, United Methodist and other Protestant churches that follow the liturgical calendar have celebrated Shrove Tuesday with stacks of pancakes. In fact, in the United Kingdom and parts of Canada, the holiday is known as Pancake Day.
The idea behind the starchy treat was to clean out all the eggs, butter, syrup and sugar from the church cupboards before the start of the 40-day Lenten fast on Ash Wednesday.
But some Arkansas churches have been stealing Mardi Gras menu ideas from their Catholic neighbors to the South - adding such Cajun staples as red beans and rice, shellfish and a whole lot of spice.
St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Little Rock has held a Mardi Gras party for about 10 years.
This year's party and art show will be Sunday, and it boasts an assortment of Louisiana flavors. The feast will include red beans and rice, andouille sausage and an assortment of mini poor-boy sandwiches and thefamiliar king cake. Rodney Block and Friends, a jazz band, will provide entertainment.
"Laissez les bon temps roulez!" declares the church's party announcement, which is a New Orleans French expression that means "Let the good times roll!"
"Pancakes are great," said Jo Gibbons, one of the event's organizers. "But they aren't nearly as much fun as a Mardi Gras party."
St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Rogerswill carry the Louisiana theme into the first Friday of Lent. Instead of the customary fish fry most Catholic parishes hold during Lent, the Knights of Columbus of St. Vincent will sponsor a Cajun-style shrimp boil with corn on the cob, potatoes and bread.
Paul Beauchamp, one of the boil's organizers, said his parish wanted to stand out from its Catholic neighbors.
"You think, 'Gee everybody else has fish, so we'll have shrimp,'" he said. "That's how we came up with this."
Organizers at St. Mary's Episcopal Church expect about 250 people to attend this year's Fat Tuesday gathering. The event has grown from one sack of oysters to 36 sacks from Shreveport's Farmers Market.
Byrd, 82, will once again be among the parish's 20 or so oyster shuckers. Joining Byrd and other church members will be the teens of the church's Boy Scout troop - one of the event's beneficiaries.
"I always look forward to this," Byrd said. "I haven't missed a year."
Religion, Pages 14, 15 on 02/21/2009