The Day After Fat Tuesday [Ash Wednesday, Beginning of Lent]

Catholic Exchange.com ^ | February 21, 2009 | Matthew Warner

[Salvation]

The Day After Fat Tuesday

February 21st, 2009 by Matthew Warner

The day after Fat Tuesday begins with suffering and self-sacrifice for many people…suffering from a hangover and a sacrificing of much needed sleep in order to make it to work on time. Somehow, I think many of us might be missing the point. For many, Fat Tuesday (English for Mardi Gras) seems to be just another reason to stay out late, drink heavily, expose ourselves, and commit all types of RAI (Random Acts of Immorality). And somehow it’s all excused because hey… it’s Mardi Gras!

Nobody likes to poop on a party, but it is quite obvious that we have lost sight of the true meaning of the festivities. If I thought that this next point would be contested by many, I might actually do a survey to verify it. But if we were to ask the average crowd on Bourbon Street during a Mardi Gras celebration, “What day is tomorrow?” I am willing to bet that many of them would not really have a clue what we were really asking. Midnight on Fat Tuesday is not just the end of the party, it’s the beginning of something much more significant and much more important. It’s the beginning of Lent. The day after Fat Tuesday is Ash Wednesday .

The whole purpose of Fat Tuesday is to feast in order to prepare for the fast of the 40 days of Lent. Traditionally, the feast consisted of fattened calves, dairy, eggs, fat, etc. that all had to be used up before Lent because the fast of Lent required abstaining from those things. This was back when the observed fast was generally stricter than just the “no meat on Fridays, etc.” that it is currently in the United States today. Fat Tuesday also marks the final day of the Carnival festivities, which comes from the words “Carne Vale,” meaning “farewell to the flesh.”

So the spirit of Fat Tuesday is one of preparation for the Lenten season to come. It is a farewell to the flesh. It is about preparing ourselves to die a little more to ourselves during Lent through fasting and abstinence in order to prepare for Good Friday and Easter, the remembrance of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And since Easter is the climax of the Christian calendar, it deserves preparation. It is the Easter event that we celebrate most as Christians and, as Catholics, on a smaller scale every Sunday at Mass. So it is only appropriate that we prepare ourselves physically, mentally, and spiritually to participate fully in the sacrifice and redemption of the cross. And we should do this for the celebration of the Mass each and every Sunday, but most especially for the Easter Mass. This Easter preparation is what the Church calls Lent.

The early Church, in its wisdom, evolved many of the pagan festivals and holidays existing during that time and turned them into Christian celebrations instead. This was because it was more difficult to kill existing traditions and begin new ones than it was to just change the meaning of the existing traditions. So what it did was take something that had strayed from God’s desires and converted it to a new meaning that pointed it back to God. (Which is pretty neat because that’s exactly what Christ came to do for us; He didn’t come to condemn our hearts, He came to convert them.)

Similarly, Fat Tuesday has its roots in hedonistic pagan rituals and celebrations, but the Church came and gave deeper meaning to them. It said, yes, be thankful for all these things you have, celebrate those, but here is Who you should be thanking: Jesus. And go ahead, live it up and be silly and happy. Fill yourselves with all of this wonderful food tonight, because tomorrow… tomorrow we fast and abstain for 40 days. Tomorrow we prepare for the real and ultimate fulfillment, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Savior. Tomorrow we prepare to receive the eternal food, the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. And of course with this new Christian purpose, even with all of the feasting and merriment prior to Lent, it was not an excuse to sin. It was a call to conversion from sinful traditions. It was just as much a call to repentance.

Unfortunately, currently we find ourselves very much back in that same situation. Most Mardi Gras celebrations today are a closer resemblance of the ancient hedonistic festivals than the Christian preparation for Lent that they are supposed to be. As Catholics (and other Christians who practice Lent), we must partially blame ourselves for allowing this holy time of year to be overshadowed by a drunken, over-indulgent, high-jacking of our own celebration. Like the early Church Christians, we have to give it meaning again. We have to point it back in the right direction — toward God. We have to allow ourselves to be converted and then work for the conversion of others. We shouldn’t wake up the day after Fat Tuesday suffering from a hangover. We should wake up immersed in the suffering and self-sacrifice of Lent. And everyone should know what day comes after Fat Tuesday.

 

Matthew Warner is a Catholic blogger, speaker, musician and founder of Fallible Blogma and flockNote.com.

[Catholic Canadian]

Fat Tuesday? Never heard of it called that, we generally call it pancake day.

[cizinec]

Sorry, but it was a little dig at my RC brothers. Lent doesn’t begin for us until next Monday. ;)

Orthodox fasting is a little . . . different. The “official” RC rules look pretty lax to us. My wife’s grandmother was RC and she practiced fasting rules much more like Orthodox ones.

Of course, it’s not the rules that count, but your heart when fasting. We have something called a “demon’s fast.” It’s when someone follows a very strict fast but is a real jerk. We call it a demon’s fast because even the demons don’t eat.

[Miss Marple]

I do not eat meat on Fridays. On the rare occasion when I am in a position where I have to (such as being the guest of someone for dinner) I abstain from alcohol and dessert.

I find that this makes me remember Christ's sacrifice, enforces my Catholic identity, and encourages me to a life of more discipline.

[Salvation]

So what are the orthodox rules for Lent?

[Mad Dawg]

Wait! There's a day after Mardi Gras?

The modern Lenten Discipline: Party 6 days a week and sleep it off on Sunday.

And time for my annual curmudgeonly remark: If people in the country observed Lent with half the enthusiasm with which they observe Mardi Gras, our nation would be renewed.

/curmudgoen off.

[Salvation]

More about Shrove Tuesday

Pre-Lenten Days -- Family activities-Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras)[Catholic/Orthodox Caucus]

And so it begins - The Questions, the questions... [Shrove Tuesday]

On Pancakes

Mardi Gras' Catholic Roots [Shrove Tuesday]

New Orleans: A Tale of Two Cities (Rosary Walk Before Mardi Gras)

[borntobeagle]

Thank you for posting this. My husband and I were discussing Mardi Gras last night, and failed to see what the attraction was. Now, knowing that it has some root in Christianity gives me a sense of understanding.

I grew up around a lot of catholics, and always loved the Friday Fish Fries, but never had any knowledge other than it was a great bonus for those of us who did not participate in Lent.

Have most Catholics strayed from the Friday Fish Fries? I don't see them offered at the local restaurants like I did as a kid (of course I'm living in a strong Baptist area now, so maybe that's the difference).

[cizinec]

It’s different from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but . . .

The first rule is the whole “why are you doing it.”

The food rules are generally as follows:

No meat after one week before Lent.

No dairy after Lent begins.

No oil on many days, although this is generally not observed outside of monasteries.

For Greeks, no alcohol except on special wine days, which are very rare.

For us weak slavs, no alcohol means no hard liquor and, often, no wine. Beer is not considered alcohol by some of the Slavic jurisdictions.

Sunday’s liturgies are (for all jurisdictions) the Liturgy of St. Basil, which is longer than our normal Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.

More home prayers, liturgies, etc.

How many people actually observe the fast? It’s hard for me to tell and I don’t ask. It seems that most at my church follow it, but it’s a taboo subject. A person may have an ailment that requires dispensation. Dispensation is almost always from the priest.

A person can get dispensation based on the fact that they’ve never fasted before and it’s too hard. The priest then makes a rule of fasting for that individual, which is usually very challenging.

Unfortunately, the Eastern Rite Catholics have had the tendency to leave their own fasting traditions (used to be Orthodox) and follow more RC stuff. Most of the ECs don’t eat meat or dairy on Wednesdays and Fridays, but do not fast otherwise.

If you want a good challenge for Lent, skip meat and cheese on Wednesdays and Fridays (talk to your priest first). Stick to bread and inexpensive fruit. Take the cheese and meat you would have eaten and donate it to your local food bank, or whoever.

Sorry to go on and on. I was just trying to give you guys a hard time.

Have a blessed Lenten season.

[Bigg Red]

Fat Tuesday? Never heard of it called that, we generally call it pancake day.

&&&
We have always called it Shrove Tuesday in my home, as it was called in the home I grew up in. Pancakes for supper that night. Last night, the husband and I attended a pancake supper given by the K of C at my parish.

[Bigg Red]

...another area of traditional anti-Judaism....

&&
Well, I apologize for the sins of my forefathers, but that was then, and this is now.

Our Eastertide gives the nod to your Passover, BTW, and some RC liturgies introduce elements of Passover traditions.

I was never, in my 12 years of Catholic education, beginning in the 1950s, taught anything but respect for Judaism, both in school and in my parents’ home.

[Bigg Red]

...another area of traditional anti-Judaism....

&&
Well, I apologize for the sins of my forefathers, but that was then, and this is now.

Our Eastertide gives the nod to your Passover, BTW, and some RC liturgies introduce elements of Passover traditions.

I was never, in my 12 years of Catholic education, beginning in the 1950s, taught anything but respect for Judaism, both in school and in my parents’ home.

[Bigg Red]

Sorry for the double post.

[Zionist Conspirator]

I don't really want to get into a big discussion right now because I have other things on my mind, but for some reason you--and all liturgical chr*stians, for that matter--seem to miss the point I am trying to make.

I grew up sharing the beliefs of my Fundamentalist Protestant culture, one of which was that the "old law" no longer applied because it had been explicitly abolished in the "new testament"--however, this same abolition was seen to make all rituals, ceremonials, holidays, and laws completely superfluous.

Eventually I converted to Roman Catholicism because of the historical argument, but this created an even bigger problem. I retained my Biblical sentimentalism, but now I found myself having to justify and defend post-Biblical rituals, ceremonials, holidays, and laws while interpreting Paul's strictures only against Biblical (ie, Jewish) rituals, ceremonials, holidays, and laws. Eventually I could no longer go along with this.

If the ceremonials and laws of the Bible have been abolished, then, qal vachomer, so have all post-Biblical laws. If, on the other hand (as liturgical chr*stianity teaches) post-Biblical laws are the means by which "salvation" is "appropriated," then there was never anything wrong with Biblical law in the first place.

This is strictly theological anti-Judasim, not "anti-Semitism" as it is conventionally defined today. I also took a little swipe (reread my post and perhaps you'll see it) at Jews who engage in endless dialogues with the most liberal, anti-Biblical chr*stians they can find and who scream bloody murder at ethnic prejudice but never seem to complain about the abolition of Jewish holidays in favor of pagan ones (or about slams at the "Pharisees," who remain a perfectly legitimate target uncovered by the shield of "political correctness").

Thank you for your interest. I know you are not an anti-Semite.