We are having a "Fat Tuesday" pot luck here at work and when I mentioned it to my husband he told me he thought the whole idea of Fat Tuesday was silly. When I asked him why he explained that it was kind of like New Years when people eat too much before they vow to diet. It's celebrating gluttony.
Honestly I never paid much attention to Mardi Gras until here at my new job (have I really been there over a year?) and people were bringing in "King Cakes" with the little baby inside (not a real baby, a little baby figurine). So, I didn't know that Fat Tuesday was the day before Ash Wednesday and the gluttony was in preparation for giving something up for Lent (the giving up often times has something to do with not eating something you love to eat).
Since I have started attending church again in preparation for Willlow's Baptism in April (not that I plan on specifically NOT attending Church after that), I find the whole thing fascinating!! So, here's a short lesson on Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday. (We'll leave the Lent discussion for another time *wink*)
So, where did Mardi Gras even come from anyway?? Well, according to Holidays.net; "Historians tell us that the ancient Romans probably kicked off the Mardi Gras celebrations. Their mid-February festival known as Lupercalia honored the god Lupercus, alternately known as the god of fertility and the god of agriculture and pastoral shepherds. In either case, his party definitely had Mardi Gras-like qualities, including days of feasting and drinking. And a little enjoying the "pleasures of the flesh", probably, too -- in fact, the term Carnival, often synonymous with Mardi Gras, is derived from the Latin expression meaning "farewell to the flesh."
"Like most of the ancient Roman and Greek festivals, Lupercalia was adopted and adapted by the Church as a way of subtly converting the local pagans to Christianity. The carnival-like celebration of Lupercalia thus morphed into a last "fling" before the beginning of the Lenten period. Lent refers to the 40 days of pertinence and purification celebrated between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. During Lent, the religiously faithful refrain from a number of indulgences of the "flesh", including eating meat."
This celebration by the Romans quickly spread across Europe and it was the French who brought it to America.
You would think that living in the South (and so close to New Orleans) I would have had a clue. But then I live in Houston and I have never been to Galveston so there you go.
If you celebrate Mardi Gras then Happy Fat Tuesday!!
Now I just have to figure out what I am giving up for Lent...
