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. That's why the enormous party in New
Orleans, for example, ends abruptly at midnight on Tuesday, with battalions of
streetsweepers pushing the crowds out of the French Quarter towards 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 of 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; since 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.
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.
Mardi Gras literally 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. The custom of making
-The 10 best carnivals around the world are these :
- Mardi Gras, New Orleans
- Carnevale, Venice, Italy
- Carnival, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Karneval, Cologne, Germany
- Carnival of Oruro, Bolivia
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- Carnival, Martinique
- Fiesta de las Flores y las Frutas, Ecuador
- Patras Carnival, Greece
- Fasching, Germany
- Carnival, Sitges, Spain
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