Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday)

[Lamb]

It's time to fatten up before Lent begins! Where are your beads? Where are your paczkis?

 

[hotrhymez]

I'll let you know as soon as I know what a paczki is..lol

 

[psalms 91]

I have been eating them lol

 

[Lamb]

I'll let you know as soon as I know what a paczki is..lol

It's a donut...like in the pic I haven't found any out here where I live.

 

[psalms 91]

It's a donut...like in the pic I haven't found any out here where I live.

They are in all the stores here

 

[vince284]

It's a donut...like in the pic I haven't found any out here where I live.

There were tons of them at my work cafeteria. They also served gumbo and jambalaya with fixin's and the grill had a New Orleans shrimp po' boy sandwich. I didn't even make it to the salad bar or the sandwich station.

 

[Tigger]

I like to visit New Orleans but definitely not during Mardi Gras.

 

[tango]

They are in all the stores here

In England we call it Pancake Day and eat, well, pancakes. Our pancakes are thin, not like US pancakes. We often sprinkle them with lemon juice and sugar and then roll them up.

The idea of Pancake Day is to use up all the fat and sugar that you notionally won't be using during Lent. It seems to defeat the point to just buy the finished product from the store.

 

[Albion]

As a small aside, isn't it a shame that 'Fat Tuesday' has lately come to be THE term, while 'Shrove Tuesday' is seldom the term of choice anymore, even among Christians? That's how I feel anyway, as I see the Christian heritage in our culture slowly but steadily being chipped away.

 

[psalms 91]

In England we call it Pancake Day and eat, well, pancakes. Our pancakes are thin, not like US pancakes. We often sprinkle them with lemon juice and sugar and then roll them up.

The idea of Pancake Day is to use up all the fat and sugar that you notionally won't be using during Lent. It seems to defeat the point to just buy the finished product from the store.

The pancakes you describe we would call crepes

 

[vince284]

The pancakes you describe we would call crepes

I would agree, a US pancake has leavening which makes them fluffier. A crepe does not contain a raising agent like the description of the English pancake, thus flatter.

 

[tango]

As a small aside, isn't it a shame that 'Fat Tuesday' has lately come to be THE term, while 'Shrove Tuesday' is seldom the term of choice anymore, even among Christians? That's how I feel anyway, as I see the Christian heritage in our culture slowly but steadily being chipped away.

I've never heard it called Fat Tuesday in England.

Unless there's something about it that I missed it seems to be something borne more of tradition than anything specifically Scriptural.

 

[tango]

The pancakes you describe we would call crepes

The crepes you describe we would call pancakes

Seriously, I quite like both types of pancakes, although the thicker US-style pancakes do seem to soak up maple syrup at an alarming rate. Using less maple syrup reduces the sugar intake and the calorie count but then I find them a bit bland.

 

[vince284]

I've never heard it called Fat Tuesday in England.

Unless there's something about it that I missed it seems to be something borne more of tradition than anything specifically Scriptural.

Makes sense to me, from what I have read and I'm no expert Mardi Gras (fr), in English "Fat Tuesday" was a day Christians adopted to end secular festivities of several days to start the Lenten season. And Shrove Tuesday was more of a religious single day preparing for Lent that included confession and forgiveness. So, two different things... marred together.

 

[Albion]

I've never heard it called Fat Tuesday in England.

Unless there's something about it that I missed it seems to be something borne more of tradition than anything specifically Scriptural.

It's just the opposite. It was not called Fat Tuesday until recently, not very commonly anyway. Now it seems to be the only term we hear.

 

[Albion]

It's time to fatten up before Lent begins! Where are your beads? Where are your paczkis?

Interestingly enough, the Lutherans are, to my knowledge, the only Christian group to have a specifically Lenten prayer bead set.

 

[Albion]

Makes sense to me, from what I have read and I'm no expert Mardi Gras (fr), in English "Fat Tuesday" was a day Christians adopted to end secular festivities of several days to start the Lenten season. And Shrove Tuesday was more of a religious single day preparing for Lent that included confession and forgiveness. So, two different things... marred together.

I think it was just the New Orleans festivities that provided the background to the term Fat Tuesday that is now used nationwide. So it is not traditional except as a translation of Mardi Gras, and it has eclipsed Shrove Tuesday.

 

[vince284]

I think it was just the New Orleans festivities that provided the background to the term Fat Tuesday that is now used nationwide. So it is not traditional except as a translation of Mardi Gras, and it has eclipsed Shrove Tuesday.

I must have heard it wrong then, I thought Mardi Gras as known was a tradition that some say dates back to medieval France, brought here with the French and continued with the Acadians (Cajuns), predominantly celebrated in French settlements, i.e. New Orleans along with other spots in the Americas. English is my second language and I had not heard of either (Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday in those specific words) when I was growing up. But I knew what "Carnival" was.

 

[Albion]

Well, yes, that festival in New Orleans and what goes with it dates back, but people did not generally refer to the day before Ash Wednesday as Fat Tuesday--which is now the rule throughout the USA apparently--until recently.

 

[vince284]

Well, yes, that festival in New Orleans and what goes with it dates back, but people did not generally refer to the day before Ash Wednesday as Fat Tuesday--which is now the rule throughout the USA apparently--until recently.

Okay, I understand. My first comment was to someone posting that Mardi Gras (fr) aka Fat Tuesday (en) had replaced what was Shrove Tuesday meant. And what I commented on was that both were different.

Mardi Gras aka Fat Tuesday = eating fat and and everything in sight.
Shrove Tuesday = confession, penance, and absolution.

Fat Tuesday has always been Mardi Gras. Just like a sandwich has always been a torta. Or the other way around.