by Barbara Anderson

Created on: February 13, 2009   Last Updated: February 20, 2009

Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is celebrated on the day before Ash Wednesday. It is, in fact, the last day of a period known as "Carnival", a multi-week pre-Lenten celebration filled with parades, pageants, parties, and of course, lots of good food and drink. Carnival begins on January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany, and ends at midnight on Fat Tuesday. It is still highly popular today in predominately Christian countries all over the world.

Like so many other modern day holidays and festivals, Mardi Gras' origins can be traced back to ancient times. During the second century, Romans held a circus-like festival, the Lupercalia, which included dancing, banquets and animal sacrifices. This festival took place near the end of winter, probably some time during mid-February.

When Christianity spread to Rome, church leaders wisely decided it would be useless to try to completely abolish the old pagan festivals such as the Lupercalia. Instead, they began to use certain features of these festivals as part of the new faith. Thus, Carnival was created, a period of feasting, drinking, wild behavior, and general merriment leading up to the solemn season of Lent.

As Christianity spread from Rome to other European countries, so did Carnival. Just prior to Lent, medieval monarchs often held festivals similar to today's Mardi Gras in order to ceremoniously welcome new knights to their service, and also held feasts to honor the knights. Sometimes, prosperous landowners would even ride though their lands rewarding the peasants with cakes, coins and similar trinkets, like present day parade float riders.

Carnival was celebrated in England until the 19th century. The celebration included sports, and ball games between neighboring villages often turned into riots. The games were followed by feasts of pancakes and lots of alcohol. Today, "Pancake Tuesday" is still a tradition in parts of the United Kingdom, and pancake tosses and pancake races are still popular events.

Germany also had a Carnival season, a tradition which continues to this day. Called "Fasching" or "Fastnacht", it features parties, costume balls, and parades which include street floats, similar to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Onlookers, as well as parade participants, dress up in elaborate costumes or paint their faces.

Similar pre-Lenten festivals, were and still are to some degree, held in France, Spain, and Portugal, as well as the countries of South America. The best known of these is "Carnival", a major celebration held

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>