Happy Mardi Gras!

Dancing and eating and partying and eating and drinking and more eating and reveling and even more eating… Maybe even catching some beads here and there….

How are you celebrating Fat Tuesday?

That’s the translation, French to English: mardi is Tuesday and gras is fat. Certainly one of the most descriptive names, although not one of the most inspiring. (One of the many reasons some New Orleanians prefer to use the term Carnival.) You might be thinking, What an odd name; why would anyone call a celebration a fat day?

Quite plainly, it’s crunch time for fattening up in preparation for the Lenten season (otherwise simply known as Lent). During Lent, people prepare for Easter. This starts with fasting from all the pleasures in our lives that draw our attention away from God. The goal is to be laser-focused on God, His goodness, His mercy, and His love, by the time of the Resurrection at the Easter Vigil.

Part and parcel to that is not eating as much. Traditionally, the faithful fast throughout Lent as part of the practice of Lenten preparations for Easter. To prepare for the time of fasting, we eat up so we don’t wither away. Logistically, it makes sense… though the practice has clearly gotten a bit beyond that. Now Mardi Gras is celebrated as a holiday all its own, with specific foods and revelry (and debauchery, but that is easily avoided).

New Orleans is known for having the best Mardi Gras celebrations Stateside. People come from all over the world to party in the streets, catch the throws (beads, shoes, painted coconut shells), and generally laissez les bons temps rouler in whatever way that means to the reveler. I can vouch: the celebrations last for weeks, the city is crowded with tourists, school children get a vacation week, workers get time off (and use it to avoid touristy areas), and it’s the most relaxed chaos I could ever imagine. By now, the early afternoon of Mardi Gras day, all the parades are over and most locals are winding down with family festivities in their own homes. (Meanwhile, tourists are probably drinking up everything they can in the French Quarter from Bourbon Street to Café du Monde.)

(Sidenote: if you want pro tips on visiting The Big Easy, reach out to me. I know where the best po’ boys [local sandwiches] are, which spots are worth a visit in the French Quarter, the best snowball spots in the city, and how to prepare for an awesome time. If you’d like a tour guide, also feel free to touch base – I’d love the excuse to go back!)

The point is, today is a day for taking it all in to enable us to make it through the upcoming battles. (Lent is effectively the season set aside for us to wage a war with our demons so that we can focus on God, so it’s a battle. Charge!) In honor of the day, and in preparation for tomorrow, I’m cleaning out my fridge. I somewhat started early as I’ve been cleaning out my pantry for the last couple of weeks, but today the target is merely the fridge; I have a lot of leftovers from an event this weekend, and all of them are getting eaten today.

I’m also using today as an excuse to reconnect with friends, including those who love the celebration, those who love to hide away from it, and those who have no idea that today is Mardi Gras. (Fun holidays like today make exceptional excuses to reach out to just about anybody.) It’s also been a relatively quiet day of introspection: how do I want to better myself, what goals am I pursuing and how can I pursue them better, and how can I make the most of this Lenten journey?

I’ll tell you more about my plans for Lent on Thursday. Today, I have a few more hours of revelry. (For me, it’s much more low key than attempting to navigate the streets of the French Quarter on a night like tonight.) I’m even thinking of stopping at a Dairy Queen for a Blizzard treat as the ultimate mid-winter indulgence. (After that wonderful salad, I may be too full even for such a treat. I would probably make room for a drive-thru daiquiri if I were in Metairie, though. Priorities!) Amidst everything else, I’m already making plans for the future.

Next year, I’m making a king cake.

How about you? How did you celebrate Mardi Gras today? What are you looking forward to this Lent? Where do you plan to be come Easter day? How are you going to springboard from today to get there?