Mardi Gras is last day of celebration and ends the day before Lent begins.
This is why, in New Orleans, Mardi Gras ends abruptly at midnight as Ash Wednesday begins.
Police usher party-goers from the area, while sweepers clear the debris from the road.
What some people might not is is that Mardi Gras is related to the Christmas season by the ordinary-time interlude known as Carnival, in many Catholic cultures.
In the Christian calendar when it does the usual time to the normal order of time of the Advent / Christmas and Lent / Easter seasons.
The liturgical year is not only about vestment colors, ashes and palms, poinsettias and Easter lilies.
Most parts of the country are four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter.
The liturgical year has seasons, too: (1) Advent, Christmas Day, and all of the Christmas season feasts until the Baptism of the Lord, and (2) Lent, Easter Sunday, and the 50 days until Pentecost.
Carnival comes from Vale meat, the Latin word for farewell to meat.
‘ Some believe the festival represented the days added to the lunar calender so that it would coincide with the solar calendar.
And how were these days outside of the calendar, rules and customs were not met.
The carnival season (Epiphany) begins twelve days after Christmas, January 6th, and celebrates the Three Wise Men who bear gifts to the infant, Jesus Christ.
King Cake Celebration Traditionally, we celebrate the Epiphany service of the King Cake, a custom in France in the 12th Century.
According to legend, the cakes were make in a circle to represent the circular routes taken by the Wise Men as they looked for Jesus.
King Herod was planning to kill the baby Jesus, the Three Kings, and decided to go in circles to confuse the King.
Originally, a coin or bean was hidden inside the cake, and whoever found it was said to have good luck all through the coming year.
Today, Baker represented Louisiana to place a small figure of a child, the child Jesus in the cake.
The person who finds the toy is expected to host the next King Cake party.
Over time, the celebrated French of New Orleans Mardi Gras with masked balls and parties.
That was until the Spanish government took control in the mid-1700s, and banned the celebrations.
Even after the U.
S.
Government acquired the land, the ban is not lifted until 1827.
The official colors of Mardi Gras, with roots tied to Catholicism, were chosen ten years later.
Purple was chosen as a symbol of justice, green represents faith, el Gold is power.
In the French language, Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday.
The name derives from the tradition of slaughtering and feasting with fatted calf, l last day of Carnival.
Fat Tuesday is also known as Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Tuesday, and fetter Dienstag.
Pancakes were started using fats, eggs and milk before Lent.
Why the Ashes on Ash Wednesday?
This can be directly linked to the death and resurrection of Baptism.
Marking with ashes, to the beginning of Lent, shows the recognition of the need for profound change in our life in this time of renewal.
Lent is a time to renew your covenant.
Typically, the messages in the season of Lent: good and evil, say yes to God, living water, the light can see, our final moments, and the end of hate.
The Carnival season is a time to feast and be joyful.
Lent is a time to renew your faith and threw the sins.
It was horrible and cruel to nail Christ to a cross made from the Dogwood tree, and watch as the people stoned him to death.
But the highlight of the season is the joy of his resurrection.
Lent invites us to renew our baptismal commitment and celebrate our rebirth to new life through the Lord’s passion, death, and resurrection.
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