EAT, DRINK, AND BE MERRY...
FOR TOMORROW IS LENT!
Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Carnival. All these are names for the same holiday, a wild get-it-out-of-your-system party which comes the day before Lent. Originally, this feast day was designed to use up any eggs and sugar in the house, which could not be used during the sober fasting of lent. It was also a day in which the community would slaughter an ox or a bull for a grand public feast, their last taste of meat before Easter. Psychologically, this makes sense -- you can look forward to the long deprivation a lot easier if you have a good meal in your belly.
Mardi Gras is now synonymous with the New Orleans, and a grand wicked time. As I explained to my mother, this has more to do with the nature of this city than the nature of the holiday. New Orleans is a wicked, raunchy, city, being both a riverport city and a seaport city, and the only way it can have an over-the-top celebration is to have one that is astoundingly wicked and raunchy. This is not, however, typical of Carnival or Fat Tuesday celebrations. There are plenty of places where you can go and enjoy yourself with not-so-wicked feasting and dancing.
It is that spirit that I invite you to come, celebrate, share -- and then tomorrow turn your eye to the somberness of the new season.
Back to Lego Page.
Design by Helen E. Davis