Fat Tuesday is Mardi Gras

Get your masks and beads out! Fat Tuesday, also known as 'Mardi Gras', is a time of celebration that falls on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Lenton Season. The week-long festivities leading up to this feast day are commemorated around the world. New Orleans is probably the most popular host of Fat Tuesday with Mardi Gras, but Venice, Italy has a week-long festival called the Venice Carnival. I've been to Venice, but never Carnival. My costume is waiting. 

The origins of Mardi Gras link back to pagan celebrations of the arrival of spring and fertility, such as the Roman festivals of Saturnalia that celebrated the same and that of Lupercalia which was also characterized by banqueting and merrymaking. This day is celebrated with parades and feasts before the start of the fasting season of Lent, which lasts for 40 days. Lent is the Christian season of spiritual preparation before Easter. During Lent, many Christians observe a period of fasting, repentance, moderation, self-denial, and spiritual discipline. Fasting is a practice that has really gone by the wayside in many Christian circles, but it could be a good time to give up that candy that made you fat all year. In addition to periodic fasting and prayer, scriptural meditations on Christ's Sacrifice for Mankind are especially sacred. Like Advent, the official color for Lent is purple. Usually, churches that celebrate Lent choose the deepest, darkest shade of purple for this season. Lent is also a penitential season or expressed sorrow and repentance that is initiated by confession. It is a sacred time.

I especially love the Lenton season. It leads us up to Easter, the most important and oldest festival of the Christian Church, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ and held (in the Western Church) between March 21 and April 25, on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the northern spring equinox. Families come together in celebration with new outfits and shoes, food, egg hunts, easter baskets, bunnies, and bonnets. My family and I had a long-standing tradition where we would go to mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City and then walk in the Easter Parade along Fifth Avenue donning our fancy hats and clothes. Now, we attend mass at St. Patrick's Church in Bay Shore and have dinner at Captain Bill's, which we love. Traditions may change, but not the reason for the season. It's when the natural and the supernatural collide. What a celebration! 

Peace and Love,

Skylark