Magazine Street New Orleans

So What The Hell Is Fat Tuesday?

Fat Tuesday signals the last day of Mardi gras and the beginning of Lent in the Catholic calendar. Fat Tuesday is celebrated in various parts of the world. In the United States, Mardi gras is most often associated with New Orleans. The celebration starts twelve days after Christmas and ends on Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. It is important to note that there are a lot of cultures that celebrate some form of Fat Tuesday. They just call it something different. And there are also a lot of cultures who have their own version of Mardi Gras. Some call it Fasching, others call it Karnival. But whatever it is, the concept is still the same.

Lent is a time of fasting and reflection in the Catholic Church. Today's tradition holds that Catholics give up something for lent, often their sacrifice is in a favored food or the abstaining from a habit, such as smoking or drinking. Catholic school children are taught to give up one sacrifice (say a candy bar or favored treat) and offer the money that would be spent on this item to missions for the poor. These sacrifices are offered up as a prayer for the conversion of souls. This is a time of abstinence and reflection, so the weeks leading up to the period of time are one of joy and abundance. They are a celebration of feasting and fun before a period of solemn thought and repentance.

The start of Lent changes with every calendar year, as does the end of Mardi gras. Fat Tuesday is always the day before Ash Wednesday, sometime between early February and early March. During Carnival, parades are thrown on weeknights as well as weekends. New Orleans streets are alive with both residents and an influx of tourists there for the events and fun. It is a highly sought party enjoyed by college kids and adults alike, though most pay little attention to its inception or reason. Fat Tuesday is the largest and most ostentatious of the parades and parties, though all celebration stops at midnight to ring in the season of lent. If you want to celebrate, you can go to New Orleans. Or, you can take in any of the alternative celebrations that happen throughout the world.

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