Mardi Gras 2023

King cakes arranged in a tower/totem. The king cake is the carnival season version of the Christmas cake.

Happy Mardi Gras! Slightly overlapping the actual Christmas season consisting of the 12 days of Christmas, and the recognized days of Epiphany, is Carnival. It begins on January 6 and continues until Mardi Gras, or “Fat Tuesday”. It’s the informal “Epiphany Season”. In ancient times, the meat had to be prepared, and preserved, for the winter. However, the arrival of the Christian season of Lent meant that a lot of this meat risked going to waste. Carnival and its festivities offered a reason beyond being festive… To purge the meat before it went bad due to underconsumption during lent. Today it’s mostly a secular celebration.

From Parade:

What is Mardi Gras?

French for “Fat Tuesday,” Mardi Gras falls on the day before Ash Wednesday each year. Mardi Gras Day is the culmination of the Carnival season, a weeks-long party of excessive, over-the-top celebrations. There are parades, live music, festivals and balls held during Carnival, complete with colorful costumes, detailed masks, tons of delicious food and lots of booze!

What is Fat Tuesday?

During the 40 days of Lent, Christians focus on prayer and their relationship with God, typically by giving up or abstaining from something they enjoy (like chocolate or television) or making more of an effort to be kind and charitable. According to History.com, it was customary for followers to use up all the rich foods in their home in the days leading up to Lent–like meat, eggs, milk, lard and cheese–ahead of the 40 days of lighter eating and fasting. Calling this season of the winter “Carnival” also has origins in the tradition of fasting: “carnelevarium” means to take away meat in Medieval Latin.

According to Britannica, Fat Tuesday is also called Shrove Tuesday (because Christians in the Middle Ages would confess and be “shriven” or absolved from their sins on this day), Carnival Tuesday, or Pancake Tuesday, since making pancakes used up many of the ingredients that were forbidden during the fasting season of Lent.

Is Mardi Gras the same thing as Carnival?

While Mardi Gras is often used to refer to revelries that take place between January and March leading up to Lent, Carnival season is the time period during which those raucous celebrations take place–with Fat Tuesday being the final night of festivities. Carnival officially begins each year on January 6, the Christian Feast of Epiphany, also called Twelfth Night or Three Kings Day. So, while Mardi Gras and Carnival both celebrate the same thing, Carnival spans several weeks (sometimes up to two or three months), and really ramps up in the last few weeks leading up to Mardi Gras, which is the last night of merriment. Think of it like the Christmas holiday season lasting from Thanksgiving weekend through New Year’s Day.

Parade and Hearinnh provides additional information on Mardi Gras, including which states recognize Mardi Gras as a state holiday.

Category: Historical, Holidays, Society