A Christian holiday and popular cultural phenomenon, Mardi Gras dates back thousands of years to pagan spring and fertility rites. Also known as Carnival, it is celebrated in many countries around the world–mainly those with large Roman Catholic populations–on the day before the religious season of Lent begins. Brazil, Venice and New Orleans play host to some of the holiday's most famous public festivities, drawing thousands of tourists and revelers every year.

According to historians, Mardi Gras dates back thousands of years to pagan celebrations of spring and fertility, including the raucous Roman festivals of Saturnalia and Lupercalia. When Christianity arrived in Rome, religious leaders decided to incorporate these popular local traditions into the new faith, an easier task than abolishing them altogether. As a result, the excess and debauchery of the Mardi Gras season became a prelude to Lent, the 40 days of penance between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. Along with Christianity, Mardi Gras spread from Rome to other European countries, including France, Germany, Spain and England.

Traditionally, in the days leading up to Lent, merrymakers would binge on all the meat, eggs, milk and cheese that remained in their homes, preparing for several weeks of eating only fish and fasting. In France, the day before Ash Wednesday came to be known as Mardi Gras, or "Fat Tuesday." The word "carnival," another common name for the pre-Lenten festivities, may also derive from this vegetarian-unfriendly custom: in Medieval Latin, carnelevarium means to take away or remove meat.

Louisiana is the only state in which Mardi Gras is a legal holiday. However, elaborate carnival festivities draw crowds in other parts of the United States during the Mardi Gras season as well, including Alabama and Mississippi. Each region has its own events and traditions.

for all those celebrating, enjoy yourselves. for all those not celebrating, enjoy yourselves. godspeed, bulldog

For what it's worth, Mardi Gras isn't a holiday to all Christians. Not all Christians are members of the Roman Catholic Church.

Mardi Gras seems to me to be the opposite of a Christian holiday, because during Mardi Gras, people tend to do what the Apostle Paul spoke against.

Ummm. Lol.


Mardi Gras isn't a catholic holiday. Its not a Christian holiday at all.

Mardi Gras is a worldly party, copying Brazil's 'carnival' centered on a Fat Tuesday that is set before the beginning of the Jewish lent season which starts on ash Wednesday which Christians use as a pre-season leading up the Easter which celebrates the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus or Nazareth who is believed to be the Christ that the Jewish faith have been waiting for.

Now some catholic members indulge in Fat Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. That doesn't make it a Christian holiday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d3WEBZ6kIM

Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday. And it leads up to the Catholic lent.

Ummm sorry thats not stated correctly at all. Lent season starts on Ash Wednesday. Some cultures has created these parties of indulgence and attached them as a precursor to Lent as an excuse and justification for indulging the flesh. (biblical terms)

There is nothing in the Bible supporting anytime of indulging. It warns against it.

As far as biblical instruction, devout Christians and Jews are called to celebrate at specific times of the year, and several times in there life time that are centered on honoring a Heavenly father and personal growth in faith. Even those celebrations have nothing to do with personal indulgence.

Again, any Christian connection its, at best, a justification for ones actions.

We can simplify the purpose of the Ministry that Jesus performed as about learning to stop being self centered and learning to be Christ centered. Marti Gras is the exact opposite of this.

So as a worldly event, it one heck of a party and the selfish part of me likes what you gals will do for a string of plastic beads. But I don't attempt to attach or justify that selfish part of me to the part that longs for what Lent does for me which is 10 fold more fulfilling. Thats why I don't celebrate Marti Gras.

Lent isn't a Jewish thing.

From Wiki:

Mardi Gras:

"Mardi Gras" (pron.: /ˈmɑrdiɡrɑː/), "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season",[1][2][3][4][5] in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi gras is French for Fat Tuesday, referring to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season, which begins on Ash Wednesday. The day is sometimes referred to as Shrove Tuesday, from the word shrive, meaning "confess."[6] Related popular practices are associated with celebrations before the fasting and religious obligations associated with the penitential season of Lent.

Lent:

Lent (Latin: Quadragesima) is a solemn observance in the liturgical year of many Christian denominations, lasting for a period of approximately six weeks leading up to Easter Sunday. In the general Latin-rite and most Western denominations Lent is taken to run from Ash Wednesday to Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday) morning or to Easter Eve. In the Catholic Church, Lent lasts until Holy Thursday, while other denominations run until Easter Eve.

The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer—through prayer, penance, repentance, almsgiving, and self-denial. Its institutional purpose is heightened in the annual commemoration of Holy Week, marking the death and resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events of the the Bible when Jesus is crucified on Good Friday, which then culminates in the celebration on Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

During Lent, many of the faithful commit to fasting or giving up certain types of luxuries as a form of penitence. The Stations of the Cross, a devotional commemoration of Christ's carrying the Cross and of his execution, are often observed. Many Roman Catholic and some Protestant churches devoid their altars of flowers, while crucifixes, religious statues, and other elaborate religious paraphernalia are often veiled in violet fabrics in solemn observance of this event. In certain pious Catholic countries, the consumption of meat is traditionally yet varyingly[1] self-abstained by the faithful, while grand religious processions and cultural customs are observed, and the faithful attempt to visit seven churches during Holy Week in honor of Jesus Christ heading to Mount Calvary.

Lent is traditionally described as lasting for forty days, in commemoration of the forty days which, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus spent fasting in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, where he endured temptation by the Devil.[2][3] However, different Christian denominations calculate the forty days of Lent differently. In most Western traditions the Sundays are not counted as part of Lent; thus the period from Ash Wednesday until Easter consists of 40 days when the Sundays are excluded. However in the Roman Catholic Church Lent is now taken to end on Holy Thursday rather than Easter Eve, and hence lasts 38 days excluding Sundays, or 44 days in total.

This event, along with its pious customs are observed by Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Anglicans. [4][5][6]

And drunks and prostitutes and pagans and seagulls and fat people and skinny people and ignorant people and intelligent people, blacks, whites, dogs, cats, bars, restaurants, pimps, people who attend churches and those that don't and those that burn them down.


But that will never make it a Christian holiday or part of the Church lent season.


Those who call themselves church members who celebrate Fat Tuesday are doing so themselves outside of the churches directive.

That would be no different than me going to a strip club on Saturday and calling it part of my church I attend the next day because I am a member.

I think they just meant that it leads up to Ash Wednesday, which is the start of lent, which is a Christian event. So, many who do celebrate it are Christian. Not all, of course. If you choose not to celebrate Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday, it's not a big deal.

You could make it religious by changing the plastic beads to Rosary beads.

I once went to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. I was pulled into a police pen with a bunch of people; they took the guy next to me and dragged him down a back alley, all the tinme he was yelling "Oh g-d, please no,no,no" I thought they were gonna take us all, one at a time, but the let the rest of us go. 'Cuz I am so pretty.

lol. You are now correct on both accounts. Lent is a Christian event not a Jewish one and Marti Gras is not either. Good to be on the same page.

it warms my heart to see a post on the well wishes thread hijacked and the original post ignored. thanks to everyone who made this possible

thank goodness there wasn't a president's day thread started in well wishes, sheesh

You're the one who said it was a Jewish thing. Good to see you've changed your mind.

lol I enjoy an occasional Jewish Passover meal sometimes. I get that and lent mixed up.

shalom

I think I lost my beads....