Martinique is the only Caribbean island to celebrate Ash Wednesday. All the other places stop at Fat Tuesday. Ash Wednesday, it turns out, is used to celebrate the burning of Vaval, a pagan tradition. The priests used to stand outside the church in Fort de France with a few Foreign Legionaires; the priests would sic the Legionaires on paraders to beat the crap out of them in a most disapproving way. I'm not sure why this photo reminds me of this story.

Martinique is the only Caribbean island to celebrate Ash Wednesday. All the other places stop at Fat Tuesday. Ash Wednesday, it turns out, is used to celebrate the burning of Vaval, a pagan tradition. The priests used to stand outside the church in Fort de France with a few Foreign Legionaires; the priests would sic the Legionaires on paraders to beat the crap out of them in a most disapproving way. I'm not sure why this photo reminds me of this story.