Fat Tuesday

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (Romans 12:1-3 ESV).

 

For those of you who have not become familiar with Lent, it may be profitable to spend a few moments at the beginning of this year’s season in some historical perspective. I looked through several sites featuring this year’s Mardi Gras which has expanded in many places to a longer celebration than the Tuesday before Ashe Wednesday. On one the headline was “Sin, Repent, Repeat.” The sentiment shared in the item is conveying that Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday is a time to sin, then repent for Ashe Wednesday and then follow it up with repeating the whole process again the next year.

 

So, what is Fat Tuesday? You may not know what Fat Tuesday is, but several know what Mardi Gras is, which is the French term meaning “Fat Tuesday.” It marks the time between the ending of the Three Kings Day (January) and Ash Wednesday (46 days before Easter) in the liturgical calendar. The origins of Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras first began thousands of years ago as part of uninhibited pagan festivals for fertility and spring, filled with indulgences in everything. Rome’s embrace of Christianity meant the interest of incorporating Fat Tuesday into Christianity. The event quickly spread through Europe, later making the journey to the United States. It arrived in the United States as a small festival marking French explorers Sieur de Bienville and Pierre Le Moyne d’lberville’s landing on what is now New Orleans, Louisiana on March 3, 1699. 

 

Tradition has it that those who were preparing for Lent and fasting were to take all the food and drink from their homes that didn’t coincide with whatever they would eat while fasting to the Lord. One New Orleans tradition, which also started in France, is that of the King cake (pictured above), which is where a plastic baby figure is baked into the cake and whoever finds the baby, while cutting him/herself a slice of cake, is crowned the king or queen of Mardi Gras and purchases the cake for the next year. Some people view the baby as that of Jesus Christ and further that the finder will have prosperity for the remainder of the year. Fat Tuesday shouldn’t be viewed as “Sin, Repent, Repeat” every year but rather a time to truly re-connect with God and remember what Jesus did in love for that reconnection to happen. It’s not just about repentance; it is about remembrance of what was done in love so that we could spend eternity with our loving Father. To that end we’ll focus on some of the ways to do that in the coming days. Today, remember the great gift of atonement and grace in Jesus!