Fat Tuesday trivia: 50 facts about the day that you can eat whatever you want!

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!

1. Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday, refers to events of the Carnival celebration, beginning on or after the Christian feasts of the Epiphany
2. And culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday
3. Mardi Gras is French for “Fat Tuesday”
4. Reflecting the practice of the last night of eating rich, fatty foods
5. Before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season
6. Related popular practices are associated with Shrovetide celebrations before the fasting and religious obligations associated with the penitential season of Lent
7. In countries such as the United Kingdom, Mardi Gras is also known as Shrove Tuesday
8. It is derived from the word shrive
9. Meaning “to administer the sacrament of confession to/ to absolve”
10. Some think Mardi Gras may be linked with the ancient Roman pagan celebrations of spring and fertility such as Saturnalia
11. Which dates back to 133- 31 B.C.
12. This celebration honored the god of agriculture, Saturn
13. It was observed in mid- December
14. Before the sowing of winter crops
15. It was a week- long festival when work and business came to a halt
16. Schools and courts of law closed
17. The normal social patterns were suspended
18. On the Julian calendar, which the Romans used at the time, the winter solstice fell on December 25
19. Hence, the celebration gradually became associated with Christmas
20. The festival is more commonly associated with Christian tradition
21. In the Gospel of Matthew the biblical Magi visited Jesus with gifts containing gold, frankincense, and myrrh
22. So on the twelfth day of Christmas, Christians celebrate the feast of Epiphany
23. A celebration of Jesus coming for more than just the Jews
24. This begins the Carnival celebration which continues until the day before Ash Wednesda
25. The culmination of this celebration overlapped with the beginning of Lent
26. 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
27. 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
28. These feasts, which first were only meant for Christians, were expanded so that Christians would celebrate with their neighbors and friends
29. Slowly, feasts like Shrove Tuesday became public celebrations
30. They adapted many names and traditions as they spread
31. The festival season varies from city to city
32. 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
33. Others treat the final three- day period before Ash Wednesday as the Mardi Gras
34. 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
35. Followed by parades and balls in January and February, celebrating up to midnight before Ash Wednesday
36. In earlier times, parades were held on New Year’s Day
37. 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
38. Carnival is an important celebration in Anglican and Catholic European nations
39. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the week before Ash Wednesday is called “Shrovetide”, ending on Shrove Tuesday
40. It has its popular celebratory aspects, as well
41. Pancakes are a traditional food
42. Pancakes and related fried breads or pastries made with sugar, fat, and eggs
43. They are also traditionally consumed at this time in many parts of Latin America and the Caribbean
44. While not observed nationally throughout the United States, a number of traditionally ethnic French cities and regions in the country have notable celebrations
45. Mardi Gras arrived in North America as a French Catholic tradition with the Le Moyne brothers
46. Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville
47. In the late 17th century, when King Louis XIV sent the pair to defend France’s claim on the territory of Louisiane
48. Which included what are now the U.S. states of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and part of eastern Texas
49. The city’s celebration begins with “12th night,” held on Epiphany, and ends on Fat Tuesday
50. The season is peppered with various parades celebrating the city’s rich French Catholic heritage