Friday, 29 February 2008

Mardi Gras / Carnival Season

Mardi Gras, French for "Fat Tuesday", is what we know as Shrove Tueday, or "Pancake Day" -for more on the different days of the Easter season see Traditional Church's Easter Calendar. Historically the fast during Lent, which starts the day after Shrove Tuesday, meant eating no "luxury" foods such as meat or dairy products -"Carnival" from the Latin "carnivale", loosely translates as "farewell to flesh"- so the day before this restrictive diet started people would feast and eat up all the eggs and meat. In New Orleans, the feast of the Epiphany (6th January) until midnight on Mardi Gras is a season of merriment, culminating in the biggest carnival. see . In South America, canival season is for four days ending in Mardi Gras.

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

No comments: