diff --git a/cookbook/templates/base.html b/cookbook/templates/base.html
index ee60fa807..7036ef40a 100644
--- a/cookbook/templates/base.html
+++ b/cookbook/templates/base.html
@@ -350,8 +350,8 @@
 
 {% message_of_the_day request as message_of_the_day %}
 {% if message_of_the_day %}
-    <div class="bg-success" style=" width: 100%; text-align: center!important; color: #ffffff; padding: 8px">
-        {{ message_of_the_day }}
+    <div class="bg-info" style=" width: 100%; text-align: center!important; color: #ffffff; padding: 8px">
+        {{ message_of_the_day | markdown |safe }}
     </div>
 {% endif %}
 
diff --git a/cookbook/templatetags/custom_tags.py b/cookbook/templatetags/custom_tags.py
index 03c6701aa..b958999a5 100644
--- a/cookbook/templatetags/custom_tags.py
+++ b/cookbook/templatetags/custom_tags.py
@@ -57,6 +57,8 @@ def markdown(value):
         ]
     )
     markdown_attrs['*'] = markdown_attrs['*'] + ['class']
+    parsed_md = parsed_md[3:] # remove outer paragraph
+    parsed_md = parsed_md[:len(parsed_md)-4]
     return bleach.clean(parsed_md, tags, markdown_attrs)