History of Mardi Gras: Why is it called Fat Tuesday?

Image: Carnival Miami

HISTORY OF MARDI GRAS

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Mardi Gras means “Fat Tuesday” in French. It is celebrated the day after Shrove Monday and the day before Ash Wednesday as a last “fling” before the 40 days of self-denial of Lent, which precede Easter. Lent is a word that comes from the Middle English word “lente,” which means “springtime” — so named for the season of the year in which it usually occurs.

While fasting from certain foods during Lent is not mentioned in the Bible, it has been a tradition in the Christian world since the mid-4th century and is observed as a period in the liturgical calendar. It seems to parallel the 40 days of fasting in the wilderness that Jesus experienced following his baptism at the Jordan River.

Origin of Mardi Gras

Historically, Lenten fasting became mandatory, especially abstinence from eating meat. The first Council of Nicaea in 325 AD spoke of fasting for 40 days before Easter. While recommended by St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, in his Festal Letter III to his flock in Egypt in 331 AD, Lent was enforced in the Church throughout Europe by the Middle Ages, especially by forbidding meat during the last weeks before Easter. In the early 7th century, Pope Gregory the Great declared that fasting should begin on Ash Wednesday.

Mardi Gras and Carnival

Venice Mask shop. Author’s photo

The word carnival comes from an old Italian word that means “go without meat” or “removal of meat” (Latin: carne levare.) Festivals like Mardi Gras sprang up throughout Europe to prepare for the coming times of self-denial.

Because livestock in Europe were typically slaughtered in November, meat would not be preservable. The remaining winter stores of lard, butter, and meat would be eaten, for these would otherwise soon start to spoil.

Carnival is a six-week celebration between Epiphany and Lent in various parts of the world.

• Venice was predominantly a “party town” for centuries, with its Carnevale di Venezia and elaborate masks, still available in shops today.

• In England, the Tuesday immediately before Ash Wednesday is called Shrove Tuesday, following Shrove Monday, and is celebrated by eating rich food that won’t be consumed during Lent.

• In the British Isles and some former British Commonwealth countries, Mardi Gras is Pancake Tuesday, a popular way to celebrate the day and clear the pantry of rich foods before Lent.

• Brazil is renowned for its Sambadrome Carnival Parade. Rio de Janeiro – the second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the sixth-most-populous city in the Americas – hosts the largest Carnival celebration in the world with 30,000 annual participants and 90,000 nightly ticketed spectators. It started this year on February 28, and the Samba Champions’ Parade begins on March 8.

• New Orleans, in the US, has the best-known parades – featuring colorful floats and masked riders – that attract over a million visitors yearly and bring in $1B in revenue. Known for the Mardi Gras “beads,” as recently as 2018, the city discovered over 46 tons of discarded beads in storm drains along the 5-block parade route.

Mardi Gras Beads

Mardi Gras beads, or “throws,” are strings of beads, trinkets, doubloons (coins), or cups thrown or passed out from the Mardi Gras floats during the celebration. Popular in the cities of the Gulf states of America – New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, etc. – to celebrants and spectators along the parade route.

Originally imported from Japan or Czechoslovakia, they’re now made from plastic or glass of purple, green, and gold to symbolize justice, faith, and power.

Meat after Mardi Gras?

Zürich Grossmünster Church. Author’s photo

As the Protestant Reformation spread throughout Europe, Lent came to be regarded more as a Roman Catholic institution. Protestants largely ignored it as a traditional observance from the early 16th century onward.

This was precipitated by the famous “Affair of the Sausages.” Ulrich Zwingli, the Protestant pastor of the Grossmünster (Great Minster) Church in Zürich, spoke in favor of eating sausage during Lent in defense of a dinner at the home of his friend, the local printer, in March 1522.

Though he did not enjoy sausages himself, Zwingli argued that Lenten meat fasting should be voluntary rather than mandatory, as it was not expressly forbidden in the Bible.

This reluctance by Protestants to observe Lent did not reverse, especially in the US, until the 1980s. Today, more Protestant churches participate in Lent with devotions, Scripture readings, and special Ash Wednesday services.

But What About Chocolate?

Chocolate drink. Image: Wikimedia

Forget about meat, what about chocolate? Could it be consumed during Lent?

Yes, if you drank it.

When chocolate first came to Europe from the New World, it was consumed as a drink, as I describe in my article on the History of Chocolate.

By the 1600s, the aristocracy drank chocolate in church, on the grounds that it prevented fainting and fatigue during the long celebrations of Mass because of its medicinal properties. This was debated in the Church for a century between the Dominicans and the Jesuits.

Pope Pius V was offered a cup of hot chocolate in 1569 and pronounced that it was “so foul” that he decided there was no need to ban it. Finally, in 1662, Pope Alexander VII adjudicated the debate with a single sentence:

“Liquidum non frangit jejunum.” Liquids do not break the fast.

What are the customs you observe on Mardi Gras?

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
billpetro.com

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