The Tuesday before Lent begins
Mardi Gras and Lent: The Real Story
The last feast before forty days of preparing for Easter.
Where it really comes from
Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday." It's the day before Ash Wednesday, when Lent begins: about forty days of prayer, fasting, and repentance to prepare for Easter, echoing Jesus' forty days in the wilderness. Families used up their rich foods, like butter, eggs, and fat, before the fast. In England it's called Shrove Tuesday, from "shrive," an old word for confessing sins, and people still eat pancakes that day.
What people say vs. what history shows
Myth: “Mardi Gras is just a pagan party with beads.”
Likely: strong case, some debate.
The date only exists because of Lent and Easter: it moves every year with Easter. Carnival celebrations have become wild in places, and some of their festivities may have older folk roots, but the reason for the day is the Christian calendar. Even the word carnival likely comes from old Italian words meaning "removing meat."
The customs, honestly
- Pancakes (Christian origin): A way to use up eggs, butter, and milk before the Lenten fast.
- Parades and beads (Folk custom): Later carnival customs, especially in New Orleans from the 1800s on.
- Ashes on Ash Wednesday (Christian origin): A cross of ashes reminds us, "for dust you are and to dust you will return" (Genesis 3:19), and turns us back to God.
The Jesus connection
Lent follows Jesus, who fasted forty days and was tempted, yet without sin (Matthew 4:1-11; Hebrews 4:15). It's a season of turning back to God, and it ends at the empty tomb.
For kids
Fat Tuesday is a pancake party! The next day starts Lent, when people get ready for Easter by praying and sometimes giving up a treat to remember Jesus.
Talk about it
If you gave up one thing for Lent to make more room for God, what would it be?
Read it in the Bible
Sources
- Thomas J. Talley, The Origins of the Liturgical Year (1986)