Right now it’s Carnival, or Mardi Gras, time in many nations.
In 2016, depending on where you live, it coincides with either Rose Monday on February 8th, or Shrove (Pancake) Tuesday on the 9th, the 2 days preceding Ash Wednesday.
Carnival, or Mardi Gras, marks the time before the traditional period of abstinence called Lent, or the Lenten season, begins. Anyone anywhere raised as a Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox Christian knows about that time leading up to yet another holiday, Easter.
Parades, fancy masks and costumes, partying, plus lots of drinking and eating are an integral part of the pre-Lent merriment along with, of course, those glittery baubles and beads dispensed numerous places to parade spectators.
History.com covered its origins in an article and short video on “the history of Mardi Gras, also known as Fat Tuesday, and how the holiday came to be synonymous with New Orleans”.
Different Name, Same Idea
In some areas, like Orthodox Russia, Rose Monday and Shrove Tuesday are not familiar holidays though, according to the website Russiapedia, Russians have a similar week long pre-Lenten celebration, Maslenitsa.
Akin to its cousin Carnival’s origins, the article stated,
“The tradition of Maslenitsa dates back to pagan times, when Russian folk would bid farewell to winter and welcome spring.”
In the USA, unless you are Catholic, or Episcopalian, or live in a community heavily steeped in those traditions, chances are fairly high you too haven’t heard much about Rose Monday or Shrove Tuesday either.
On the other hand, Carnival, or Mardi Gras, seems to be increasingly popular with people in many Western countries, religious or not.
Photo credit: Dani Sardà i Lizaran; License: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
