Tomorrow is “Fat Tuesday” , the beginning of Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras itself means Fat Tuesday, though in celebrations in the United States many have come to separate the two terms. Mardi Gras can be considered the feast before the fast. Part goers are expected to live it up and wallow a bit in sin before going cold turkey and living modestly through Lent.
Mardi Gras is honored by colorful masks, parades, and the consumption if sinful foods ranging from overly decadent rich foods, such as the King Cake, and alcohol. Click here to learn more about the King Cake. Other parts of the world follow the same traditions but call the party filled season Carnival.
In the United States the undisputed Mardi Gras center is New Orleans. But while the celebration is linked to the Christian tradition of Lent the holiday, historians tell us, has roots in the much older pagan “Lupercalia” holiday.
Lupercalia was a weeklong holiday in mid-February that honored the God Lupercus. Lupercus was a fertility god, granting full bellies to human women and full fields of harvest to the men. The holiday centered around this god could be considered typical of Roman excess. Like Mardi Gras today patrons gorged on delicious foods, drank a little too much, and honored the god’s gift of fertility by indulging in pleasures of the flesh.
It is believed that early Christians in Rome adopted this Lupercalia as they did many of the traditional pagan rituals. With the spread of the Christian religion came the spread of the idea of feasting before the fast. France in particular quickly picked up the practice and gave the holiday its Mardi Gras name.
When French settlers came to the New World they brought many of their beloved traditions along with them- Fat Tuesday definitely included. The French influence on New Orleans lasts even into today and colors the Mardi Gras celebrations.
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