In Kenner, Mardi Gras declared a legal holiday - only 230 years later

lundi gras in kenner
King of Argus Elton Lagasse and the rest of carnival royalty meet their public as they parade in Kenner's Rivertown to kick off Lundi Gras celebration, on Monday March 3, 2014. On Thursday, July 10, Kenner City Council declared Lundi Gras an official holiday to observe, and declared Mardi Gras a legal holiday. (Ted Jackson, | The Times-Picayune)

Don't try calling a government office on Mardi Gras. In Kenner, at least, the lights are off and doors are locked - and it's been that way pretty much since anyone can remember.

But it was not until Thursday night, when the Kenner City Council unanimously voted on a new holiday calendar, that the city declared Mardi Gras a legal holiday, rather than one it simply observed. The vote passed 6-0, with no discussion.

"We had all along been celebrating it," said Council President Maria DeFrancesch. "And we're going to continue to do that. But in order to do that, you have to go through a formal procedure which, legally, Kenner never did."

And it's easy to understand why. The city was moved to declare the holiday "legal" only due to the kind of bureaucratic distinction many Carnival revelers celebrate to forget. The issue came up in February, when City Attorney Louis Gruntz noticed the holiday - first recorded in a letter to the Spanish governing body in 1781 - had never officially gone on Kenner's books. "It was just never codified," Gruntz said. "It was just an observed holiday."

While declaring a long-observed holiday an actual holiday might seem a bit silly, City Attorney Louis Gruntz said it could be important from a legal standpoint in the case of lawsuits. In February, Gruntz was asked what would happen if a citizen sought to file a lawsuit on Mardi Gras day, the last day prescribed by a deadline. "Somebody asked the question. I don't even remember who. So we started looking at it."

Gruntz realized that there could be an issue. "If the time limit was up on Mardi Gras, and it wasn't a legal holiday, it would terminate on Mardi Gras," Gruntz said. "But by making it a legal holiday, it then carries over to Ash Wednesday."

According to state law R.S. 1:55.3, in 29 parishes throughout Southern Louisiana and all the municipalities they contain, Mardi Gras must be declared a legal holiday by ordinance. Until last night, that bit of paperwork had been ignored.

When the Kenner council moved to declare Mardi Gras an official legal holiday, it also codified other holidays as legal, including New Year's Day, Dr. Martin Luther King day, Good Friday, National Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The city declared Lundi Gras, Black Friday, Christmas Eve, and New Year's Eve as observed holidays.

"It's just for housekeeping purposes," said DeFrancesch. "We had been doing it in the past, but we should do it the right way."