It was the year 2020 and the world had just received the news around the time of the Lunar New Year celebrations that a new virus had been discovered and that it was rapidly spreading across the globe. Paralysed by the shock, the world waited with abated breath in the hope that it would be a fad virus and quickly fade away. Many soon turned blue, as the virus raged on, and literally took our breath away. In Singapore, DORSCON GREEN, turned YELLOW, turned ORANGE. Parks, playgrounds, barbecue pits, beaches, gathering places in the housing estates were fenced up and cordoned off. There was a frenzy as people started panic purchasing and grocery stores formed long queues as toilet paper flew off the shelves. We were caught unprepared. To exacerbate the issue, there was not yet a vaccine, and medical masks and Personal Equipment were in short supply. We had to wait it out and temper the situation through isolating ourselves at home.
As the Churches around the world began to close their doors, and as the streets of Singapore were evicted, as the people were commended to stay at home, and as the parishes soon locked themselves up, a shroud of gloom and desolation settled upon us. I wrote then on my social media that, “2020 appeared to be the Lentiest Lent yet.”
As the Church of St. Michael celebrated Fat Tuesday on the 21st of February 2023, in preparation for Lent, I was reminded about how the opportunity to celebrate something like this as a community and as a parish, was a grace and gift from God.
Ministries Preparing for Fat Tuesday
Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday as it is literally translated, is the last day of Ordinary Time, and the day before Lent commences on Ash Wednesday, is not a day that is normally celebrated in South-East Asian countries. The places that do celebrate this day, do so with aplomb – Rio de Janeiro and New Orleans amidst others begin a season of Mardi Gras starting on Epiphany, usually around January 6, with the festivities culminating on Fat Tuesday. The weeks leading up to Fat Tuesday see an intense preparation time of making carnival floats, and King’s Cakes. Traditionally, King’s Cakes are eaten as a nod to the magi who visit Jesus, and a toy baby Jesus is hidden in the cake. The person who finds the baby Jesus becomes and dresses up as a King or Queen for the day and hosts the next King’s Cake Party the following year. Traditionally, the cakes are also baked in the shaped of a round, as a homage to how the magi took a circular route back home to foil the plans of King Herod (van Vurst, 2023).
Waiting for the Mardi Gras Paraliturgy, Barbecue, and Evening Brew to Begin
It may come as a surprise, but Mardi Gras is definitively Catholic in origin. The word, “Mardi” meaning Tuesday, and “Gras” meaning Fat in French. The name comes from the Catholic tradition of slaughtering the fatted cow on the last day of the carnival. Fat Tuesday is also known as Pancake Tuesday. Pancake Tuesday is the way which the English celebrated Fat Tuesday (Catholic Diocese of Little Rock, 2022) as the English people used up their eggs, milk, and butter by making and eating pancakes, before the fasting and abstinence of Lent. In the Medieval Church and still in some other Christian denominations today, such as the Anglican, Lutheran or Methodist churches, Fat Tuesday, is known as Shrove Tuesday. The week preceding Lent, was called Shrovetide and people were encouraged to visit their confessors – Abbot Aelfric of Anglo-Saxon origin, in circa A.D. 1000 exhorted the people: “In the week immediately before Lent everyone shall go to his confessor and confess his deeds and the confessor shall so shrive him as he then may hear by his deeds what he is to do [in the way of penance]”. (Thurston, 1912; Sly, 2023)
The Cauldron Warriors – CSM’s altar servers, the eggs we fried,
and parishioners grilling in community.
As part of the Mardi Gras, a huge carnival is organised with a parade that sees the likes of Samba dancers, glittery costumes, and larger-than-life feathered headgear. In New Orleans, on floats fitted with neon lights, revolving fixtures, and spectacular platforms, performers throw beads of the Mardi Gras colours to passers-by. While in Venice, masquerades and masked balls mark the festivity of the Carnival Season. For most people, the encounter with carnival is wild, loud, and an excuse to indulge in excess. It is an irony, that the word, “carnival” comes from the Medieval Latin carne vale, meaning, “flesh, farewell!” which developed into the Old Pisan carnelevare meaning “to remove meat” (Online Etymology Dictionary, n.d.).
The official colours of Mardi Gras – gold, purple, and green with their Catholic liturgical roots comprising the confluence of Ordinary Time – Green, Gold – a time of celebration, and Purple – Lent were chosen in the year 1837 to signify: Justice (Purple), Faith (Green), and Power (Gold) and represent the magi who visited Jesus (van Vurst, 2023).
While the celebration of carnival has taken on an extravagant nature. Carnival, with its songs, dance, and feasting is in essence a foretaste of the Easter joy that is to come after Lent. There is a tendency for the average Catholic to go around all day in some sort of melancholic, gloomy, self-repression, but we forget the heroism, daring, boldness, and the audacity of the Resurrection. For only the Resurrection can define and explain the Crucifixion (Wildman, 2018). Fortified by this joyous hope as a looking forward to the certainty of Easter, we now enter into Lent with new lenses, and renewed strength. Lent becomes a celebration of the intense and immense love of God our Father, and recognising and understanding this truth, sets us free to now willingly take up the three pillars of Lent – Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving. Our perspectives change when we realise that our doing of these things comes from a celebration of us being beloved and forgiven, rather than these being boring, meaningless obligations. We now desire to do these things willingly and joyfully. Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday reminds us of these things that we have forgotten about our Faith and the Reason why we rejoice. Even during Lent.
The burning of the palms of last year, to prepare the ashes for Ash Wednesday,
and a tangible sign of the things that we would like to change about ourselves for each palm burnt.
Being nourished materially with the yummy food,
and spiritually with the Paraliturgy and Evening Brew.
By the Grace of God,
Brian Bartholomew Tan
References
Catholic Diocese of Little Rock. (2022). Mardi Gras Began as Preparation for Lent. Catholic Diocese of Little Rock. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from https://www.dolr.org/article/mardi-gras-began-preparation-lent-2022
Online Etymology Dictionary. (n.d.). Carnival. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from https://www.etymonline.com/word/carnival
Sly, R. (2023). Fat Tuesday – Mardi Gras Meant to be More than a Party. Catholic Online. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from https://www.catholic.org/lent/story.php?id=54418
Thurston, H. (1912). Shrovetide. The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved February 23, 2023 http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13763a.htm
Van Vurst, J. (2023). The Roots of Fat Tuesday, the Fruits of Lent. Franciscan Media. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from https://www.franciscanmedia.org/franciscan-spirit-blog/the-roots-of-fat-tuesday-the-fruits-of-lent/
Wildman, J. H. (2018). The Catholic Case for Mardi Gras. America the Jesuit Review. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/02/13/catholic-case-mardi-gras