Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and tradition

Mardi Gras! by Bob Trammell

This is a re-posting of my post from last year on Fat Tuesday - I was looking for an image and stumbled upon Bob's painting in my pictures and thought, "that post was pretty good and informative. So let's have it again." :) So eat a lot today, friends, it's Fat Tuesday. Tomorrow I'll be having the eggs for dinner as usual, but will keep it all in perspective as noted on the third thing.

- Today is Fat Tuesday at the Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans, and the day before Ash Wednesday. Tradition says that people eat all they want of everything and anything they want on Fat Tuesday, as Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the Lenten fasting period for Christians. The Fat Tuesday I spent in New Orleans one year was easily the most fun I ever had anywhere.

- On Ash Wednesday in New Orleans, the revelers will wake up to a city with perfectly clean and strangely quiet streets. The ankle deep trash that is allowed to be dropped in the French Quarter during Mardi Gras will have been swept away by people hard at work during the night.

- My church traditionally serves up a dinner before Ash Wednesday service that features egg and pancake dishes - no meat. In Googling the question as to why we eat eggs, no meat, on Ash Wednesday, I came across this answer on Yahoo answers that sums it up from someone called Arcana 1, and puts it into perspective: "The choice is up to you. The Catholic Church advocates many practices of avoidance and fasting on certain days of the year. It is actually a carry over of the Church's ancient days' adventurism. But honestly I tell you this...Do good acts to all men, respect your parents and elders, do not cheat. Pray and have solid faith in your God. These acts will get you through hell even if you eat eggs or consume meat on Ash Wednesday. God Bless you." That sounds simple enough. :)