Fat Tuesday is a day that you can eat all the sweets and fatty foods you like! But how it all started?
Let’s find some trivia and facts about this day!
- Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday, refers to events of the Carnival celebration, beginning on or after the Christian feasts of the Epiphany
- And culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday
- Mardi Gras is French for “Fat Tuesday”
- Reflecting the practice of the last night of eating rich, fatty foods
- Before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season
- Related popular practices are associated with Shrovetide celebrations before the fasting and religious obligations associated with the penitential season of Lent
- In countries such as the United Kingdom, Mardi Gras is also known as Shrove Tuesday
- It is derived from the word shrive
- Meaning “to administer the sacrament of confession to/ to absolve”
- Some think Mardi Gras may be linked with the ancient Roman pagan celebrations of spring and fertility such as Saturnalia
- Which dates back to 133- 31 B.C.
- This celebration honored the god of agriculture, Saturn
- It was observed in mid- December
- Before the sowing of winter crops
- It was a week- long festival when work and business came to a halt
- Schools and courts of law closed
- The normal social patterns were suspended
- On the Julian calendar, which the Romans used at the time, the winter solstice fell on December 25
- Hence, the celebration gradually became associated with Christmas
- The festival is more commonly associated with Christian tradition
- In the Gospel of Matthew the biblical Magi visited Jesus with gifts containing gold, frankincense, and myrrh
- So on the twelfth day of Christmas, Christians celebrate the feast of Epiphany
- A celebration of Jesus coming for more than just the Jews
- This begins the Carnival celebration which continues until the day before Ash Wednesda
- The culmination of this celebration overlapped with the beginning of Lent
- Early Christians believed that during the Lenten season, Christians should deprive themselves of anything that brought joy so that they might understand better the trials that Jesus faced leading up to his death on Good Friday
- Thus, on the Tuesday before Lent and the last day of Epiphany, Christians would celebrate with a feast of their favorite foods to tide them over the coming weeks
- These feasts, which first were only meant for Christians, were expanded so that Christians would celebrate with their neighbors and friends
- Slowly, feasts like Shrove Tuesday became public celebrations
- They adapted many names and traditions as they spread
- The festival season varies from city to city
- As some traditions, such as the one in New Orleans, Louisiana, consider Mardi Gras to stretch the entire period from Twelfth Night to Ash Wednesday
- Others treat the final three- day period before Ash Wednesday as the Mardi Gras
- In Mobile, Alabama, Mardi Gras is associated with social events begin in November, followed by mystic society balls on Thanksgiving, then New Year’s Eve
- Followed by parades and balls in January and February, celebrating up to midnight before Ash Wednesday
- In earlier times, parades were held on New Year’s Day
- Other cities famous for Mardi Gras celebrations include Rio de Janeiro; Barranquilla, Colombia; George Town, Cayman Islands; Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago; Quebec City, Quebec, Canada; and Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico
- Carnival is an important celebration in Anglican and Catholic European nations
- In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the week before Ash Wednesday is called “Shrovetide”, ending on Shrove Tuesday
- It has its popular celebratory aspects, as well
- Pancakes are a traditional food
- Pancakes and related fried breads or pastries made with sugar, fat, and eggs
- They are also traditionally consumed at this time in many parts of Latin America and the Caribbean
- While not observed nationally throughout the United States, a number of traditionally ethnic French cities and regions in the country have notable celebrations
- Mardi Gras arrived in North America as a French Catholic tradition with the Le Moyne brothers
- Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville
- In the late 17th century, when King Louis XIV sent the pair to defend France’s claim on the territory of Louisiane
- Which included what are now the U.S. states of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and part of eastern Texas
- The city’s celebration begins with “12th night,” held on Epiphany, and ends on Fat Tuesday
- The season is peppered with various parades celebrating the city’s rich French Catholic heritage
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