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Post by Joanna on Feb 16, 2015 20:41:08 GMT -5
Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday)Mardi Gras, literally “Fat Tuesday,” has grown in popularity in recent years as a raucous, sometimes hedonistic, event. But its roots lie in the Christian calendar, as the “last hurrah” before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. This the reason the enormous party in New Orleans, for example, ends abruptly at midnight Tuesday, with battalions of streetsweepers pushing the crowds out of the French Quarter toward home.
What is less known about Mardi Gras is its relation to the Christmas season, through the ordinary-time interlude known in many Catholic cultures as Carnival. (Ordinary time, in the Christian calendar, refers to the normal “ordering” of time outside the Advent/Christmas or Lent/Easter seasons.)
Carnival comes from the Latin words carne vale, meaning “farewell to the flesh.” Like many Catholic holidays and seasonal celebrations, it likely has its roots in pre-Christian traditions based on the seasons. Some believe the festival represented the few days added to the lunar calendar to make it coincide with the solar calendar; because these days were outside the calendar, rules and customs were not obeyed. Others see it as a late-winter celebration designed to welcome the coming spring. As early as the middle of the second century, the Romans observed a Fast of 40 Days, which was preceded by a brief season of feasting, costumes and merrymaking.Source: AmericanCatholic.
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Post by Sam on Feb 17, 2015 3:47:47 GMT -5
I didn't know that Mardi Gras meant Fat Tuesday.
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Post by jason on Feb 19, 2015 18:26:43 GMT -5
I didn't know that Mardi Gras meant Fat Tuesday. Just how far back in the woods do you live, Sam? |
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Post by Sam on Feb 20, 2015 0:21:37 GMT -5
I live in Appalachia and there aren't any Catholics where I live and not very many Episcopalians, so I don't know much about Lent.
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Post by Joanna on Feb 8, 2016 23:31:15 GMT -5
Origins of Mardi Gras
Though today’s Mardi Gras celebrations have devolved into raucous, hedonistic events, its roots lie in the Christian calendar, something of a final hurrah before Lent beginning the following day on Ash Wednesday. This is the enormous party in New Orleans, like Cinderella’s ball, ends abruptly at midnight with battalions of street-sweepers pushing the crowds out of the French Quarter.
What is less known about Mardi Gras is its relation to the Christmas season, through the ordinary-time interlude known in many Catholic cultures as Carnival. (Ordinary time, in the Christian calendar, refers to the normal “ordering” of time outside the Advent/Christmas or Lent/Easter seasons.) Carnival comes from the Latin words carne vale, meaning “farewell to the flesh.” Like many Catholic holidays and seasonal celebrations, it likely has roots in pre-Christian traditions based on the seasons. Some believe the festival represented the few days added to the lunar calendar to make it coincide with the solar calendar; because these days were outside the calendar, rules and customs were not obeyed. Others see it as a late-winter celebration designed to welcome the coming spring. As early as the middle of the 2nd century, the Romans observed a “Fast of 40 Days,” which was preceded by a brief season of feasting, costumes and merrymaking.
The Carnival season kicks off with the Epiphany, also known as Twelfth Night, Three Kings’ Day and, in the Eastern churches, Theophany. Epiphany, which falls on January 6, 12 days after Christmas, celebrates the visit of the Wise Men bearing gifts for the infant Jesus. In cultures that celebrate Carnival, Epiphany starts a series of parties leading up to Mardi Gras. Epiphany is also traditionally when celebrants serve King’s Cake, a custom that began in France in the 12th century. Legend has it the cakes were made in a circle to represent the circular routes the Wise Men took to locate Jesus, in order to confuse King Herod and foil his plans to kill the Christ Child. In the early days, a coin or bean was hidden inside the cake and whomever found the item was said to have good luck in the coming year. In Louisiana, bakers now put a tiny figurine of a baby, representing the Christ Child, in the cake and the person who finds it is expected to host the next King Cake party.
There are well-known season-long Carnival celebrations in Europe and Latin America, including Nice, France; Cologne, Germany; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The best-known celebrations in the US is in New Orleans and the French-Catholic communities of the Gulf Coast. Mardi Gras came to the New World in 1699, when a French explorer arrived at the Mississippi River, about 60 miles south of present day New Orleans. He named the spot Point du Mardi Gras because he knew the holiday was being celebrated in his native country that day. Eventually the French in New Orleans celebrated Mardi Gras with masked balls and parties, until the Spanish government took over in the mid-1700s and banned the celebrations. The ban continued even after the US government acquired the land, but the celebrations resumed in 1827. The official colors of Mardi Gras, with their roots in Catholicism, were chosen 10 years later: purple, a symbol of justice; green, representing faith; and gold, to signify power.
As aforementioned, Mardi Gras means “Fat Tuesday” in French. The name comes from the tradition of slaughtering and feasting upon a fattened calf on the last day of Carnival. The day is also known as Shrove Tuesday (from “to shrive,” or hear confessions), Pancake Tuesday, and Fetter Dienstag in Germany. The custom of making pancakes comes from the need to use up fat, eggs and dairy before the fasting and abstinence of Lent begins.
Source: AmericanCatholic.
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Post by natalie on Feb 9, 2016 16:48:53 GMT -5
I'm still not sure how the tradition of getting women to flash their breasts for beads came into place. There is no mention of that in this article and if Mardi Gras has religious roots, it makes one wonder how that tradition got started, and when.
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Post by jason on Feb 10, 2016 1:41:22 GMT -5
I'm still not sure how the tradition of getting women to flash their breasts for beads came into place. There is no mention of that in this article and if Mardi Gras has religious roots, it makes one wonder how that tradition got started, and when. This tradition started because at Mardi Gras, it's a great honor to receive beads or coconuts and after those handing them out discovered that people would do almost anything to get these items, they started asking women to bare their breasts to receive the gifts and because most women at Mardi Gras are drunk, they complied. Mardi Gras is a celebration something like Christmas was in medieval England when the people elected a Lord of Misrule. People go wild and do all kinds of things that they wouldn't do ordinarily because they're drunk.
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Post by natalie on Feb 10, 2016 16:02:45 GMT -5
Gotcha. Thanks! I heard this only happens on Bourbon Street, not other parts of New Orleans where people are a little more civilized. True?
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Post by Graveyardbride on Mar 4, 2019 21:50:40 GMT -5
Why Christians Celebrate Mardi GrasMardi Gras, which means Fat Tuesday in French, is most often associated with wild parades, colorful costumes, alcohol and debauchery – but religion also plays a role in the festival’s history. Mardi Gras season officially begins on Epiphany, the Christian holiday celebrated January 6. (In Latin America, Cuba and Spain, it is called Three Kings’ Day.) Mardi Gras is also connected to the Carnival season, which countries like Brazil and Italy celebrate from Epiphany until Mardi Gras.
The holiday is believed to have arrived in the United States when French explorers settled in the South during the 17th century. Some believe it is connected to ancient Roman and pre-Roman pagan celebrations that mark the arrival of spring. According to this theory, Mardi Gras dates to pagan celebrations of fertility, including the raucous Roman festivals of Saturnalia and Lupercalia that included fertility rituals and animal sacrifice. When Christianity became the official religion of Rome, religious leaders decided to incorporate these popular traditions into the new faith instead of attempting to quash them.
Others consider Mardi Gras a holiday unique to Christianity, developed to ring in the Christian period of Lent, during which Christians are expected to abstain from sex and eating meat. The idea underpinning the holiday is that the faithful should overindulge before giving up everything for 40 days. Leading up to Lent, Christians would eat all the forbidden food that was left in their homes so their abode would be free of temptation during the fasting period – this how the name “Fat Tuesday” is derived. The period of Lent begins the day after Mardi Gras, on Ash Wednesday, and ends Easter Sunday.
Today, many Christians disagree on whether the devout should continue to participate in these rituals, given their association with excess, and if the holiday should be included in the Christian calendar.
Did you know ...
The first North American Mardi Gras was celebrated in Alabama – not Louisiana? French-Canadian explorer Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville arrived in what is now modern day Mobile on Fat Tuesday (March 3) 1699. He named the location Point du Mardi Gras and threw a little party. In the years that followed, French travelers would come to the spot explicitly for Fat Tuesday celebrations. To this day, Mobile claims to hold the oldest Mardi Gras celebrations in the country.
The traditional colors are purple, green and gold? It is rumored that when Grand Duke Alexis visited New Orleans in 1872, his welcoming committee handed out purple, green and gold beads to the party-goers that year as they were the colors of his home. The trio of shades came to symbolize the festivities and were later assigned meanings: Purple for justice, gold for power and green for faith.
The King Cake, a traditional dessert, has biblical roots? The story of these glazed, frosted pastries dates to Medieval Times when French, Belgian and Spanish cultures commemorated the 12th day of Christmas with gifts and sweets. Biblically, the kings during this time would have been visiting the newborn baby Jesus, bringing gifts and sweets of their own. This is the origin of the “King” in King Cake. Today, the cakes are fried and doughy, glazed and frosted, typically in Mardi Gras colors. They are usually circular and braided, to resemble a king’s crown. Most cakes are baked with a tiny baby figurine concealed in the dough and whomever finds the toy, as tradition holds, must host the next party.
Mardi Gras became the celebration we know today because of a secret society? Since its first impromptu celebrations in the early 1700s, Mardi Gras had been regularly canceled or banned for its destructive drunken parties – that is until 1837, when a secret society known as the Mistik Krewe of Comus aimed to elevate the chaotic experience, replacing the debauchery with lavish balls and parades. Eventually the Fat Tuesday celebrations of New Orleans garnered much support and enthusiasm, with the city later establishing itself as the Mardi Gras capital of the nation.
Sources: Cristina Maza, Newsweek, February 13, 2018, and Leah Silverman, Town and Country Magazine, March 1, 2019.See also “Feast of Fools: January 1st”“From Saturnalia to Christmas” “From Juno Februa to Candlemas” “Valentine’s Day: Its Origins and Celebration”
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Post by kitty on Mar 5, 2019 0:35:56 GMT -5
I had never thought about people having to eat all the meat in the house before Ash Wednesday, but I suppose everything except smoked meat would ruin in 40 days.
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Post by Kate on Feb 25, 2020 11:46:47 GMT -5
Today is "Fat Tuesday" and I wondered if anyone even celebrates Lent anymore. In the US, I think that now it's just an excuse to party.
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Post by kitty on Feb 25, 2020 16:23:07 GMT -5
Today is "Fat Tuesday" and I wondered if anyone even celebrates Lent anymore. In the US, I think that now it's just an excuse to party. |
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