Mardi Gras

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This is the day when all butter and fats in the pantry and kitchen had to be used up, before the beginning of the Lent fast on Ash Wednesday. Nowadays, the last vestige of this custom has become the traditional pancakes.

Shrove Tuesday also used to be a day off for apprentices, who joined in football (soccer) games that were often so riotous that sober citizens tried to ban them. The biggest game still played, at Ashbourne in Derbyshire, has goals three miles apart and lasts for two days. Other football free-for-alls are held at Sedgefield, County Durham; Alnwick, Northumberland and Atherstone in Warwickshire.

Mardi Gras, being linked to the Christian festival of Easter, will fall on the following dates in coming years:

2008		5th February
2009		24th February
2010		16th February
2011		8th March
2012		21st February
2013		12th February
2014		4th March

Mardi Gras (French for “Fat Tuesday”) is the day before Ash Wednesday, the start of the Christian season of Lent. It is also called Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day and Bursting Day. It is closely related to a number of Carnival celebrations which end at Mardi Gras in preparation for Lent. The Polish Tlusty Czwartek (Fat Thursday) is closely related to Mardi Gras, but is held five days earlier, on the last Thursday before Lent.

The reason for Mardi Gras in the liturgical calendar is to provide a day when all the foods which are forbidden to be eaten in Lent can be used up. These include all forms of fat - hence the name Fat Tuesday. In most protestant countries, the day is called Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day in the UK, because the foods which are to be banned are mostly used up to make pancakes).

Generally speaking, Mardi Gras is associated with Roman Catholic communities, although Shrove Tuesday is celebrated mainly in protestant countries. Mardi Gras is often celebrated with large parades and parties with music, food and drink, dancing and similar activities. Mardi Gras celebrations are also held in many places as a way of encouraging and enabling inner city regeneration.

Mardi Gras is usually associated with a small number of cities which are well known for their celebrations, although observance across the Catholic community worldwide is much more universal than might be supposed. The most famous Mardi Gras celebrations are probably the ones held in New Orleans (Louisiana, US), but there are many others, for instance in Venice, Bahia and Mazatlan. There are also popular Mardi Gras celebrations across the Southern United States, especially in New Roads and Lafayette in Louisiana (which have strong Cajun influences), Galveston (Texas), Mobile (Alabama), Pensacola (Florida) and St. Louis (Missouri).

In Basel, Switzerland and the Pennsylvania Dutch area around Lancaster, Penn there is a Mardi Gras festival called Fasnacht.

The associated Rio de Janeiro Carnival starts two weeks before Mardi Gras and finishes on that date. There are many other carnivals across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean and Sydney, Australia holds a Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day)

In the UK (and other mainly protestant Christian communities) where it is known as Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day, the celebrations are much more limited, with little public display of festivities. The day is marked by the preparation of pancakes, either on their own or as a meal accompaniment or dessert.

In Sweden, where it is called Fettisdagen and also White Tuesday (and in Finland where it is called Fastlagstisdag), it is traditional to eat "fastlagsbullar" or "fettisdagsbullar" (Fat Tuesday buns).