From BeliefNet.com
Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the last hurrah before the Catholic season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. It also has links to the Christmas season through the period known as Carnival.
Catholic Roots of Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras, literally "Fat Tuesday," has grown in popularity in recent years as a raucous, sometimes hedonistic event. But its roots lie in the Christian calendar, as the "last hurrah" before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. That's why the enormous party in New Orleans, for example, ends abruptly at midnight on Tuesday, with battalions of streetsweepers pushing the crowds out of the French Quarter towards home.
What is less known about Mardi Gras is its relation to the Christmas season, through the ordinary-time interlude known in many Catholic cultures as Carnival. (Ordinary time, in the Christian calendar, refers to the normal "ordering" of time outside of the Advent/Christmas or Lent/Easter seasons. There is a fine Scripture From Scratch article on that topic if you want to learn more.)
Carnival comes from the Latin words carne vale, meaning "farewell to the flesh." Like many Catholic holidays and seasonal celebrations, it likely has its roots in pre-Christian traditions based on the seasons. Some believe the festival represented the few days added to the lunar calendar to make it coincide with the solar calendar; since these days were outside the calendar, rules and customs were not obeyed. Others see it as a late-winter celebration designed to welcome the coming spring. As early as the middle of the second century, the Romans observed a Fast of 40 Days, which was preceded by a brief season of feasting, costumes and merrymaking.Read morehttp://www.americancatholic.org/Features/MardiGras/default.asp
posted by katya @ 7:22 AM
2 Comments:
I never knew it went that deep. I always thought it was just a big party.
ha ha!...good for you Aaron for being so inquisitive :o)
see, all things are connected...the pagan roots to religion are very interesting indeed...mind you the higher-ups in organized relgion don't like to admit that... at one time women had a great deal more power as they were the ones who knew how to heal from the land....when the church became more powerful they outlawed certain ancient practises and made these "witches" into heretics....astrology too is an ancient practise which parallels the natural energy about us...we still see remnants of this in the planting by the moon and of course the natural effects of the moon in relation to the female menstrual cycle (both revolve around approx. 28 days) and the effect of the moon upon the tides...plus the fact that we are 90 something percent water ourselves is undeniable...all the same...the church became all powerful as did the patriarchial society about us...see all things are much deeper than we at first presume...in fact we all have many layers and facets to us that are just amazing!! thanks for reading Aaron :o)
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