Today is Fat Tuesday, also known as Mardi Gras Day or Shrove Tuesday. It is a day when Christians eat all they want of everything and anything they want. It is the day before Ash Wednesday and is a day given over to excess. In addition to food and drink, the day is celebrated with festivities and parades.

Pancakes play a significant role and here is a link to different kinds of pancakes around the world.

According to Wikipedia:

Pancakes are associated with the day preceding Lent because they were a way to use up rich foodstuffs such as eggs, milk, and sugar, before the fasting season of the 40 days of Lent. The liturgical fasting emphasized eating plainer food and refraining from food that would give pleasure.

An interesting note about Mardi Gras and its attendant carnivals and festivities, from AmericanCatholic.org:

Carnival comes from the Latin words carne vale, meaning "farewell to the flesh." Like many Catholic holidays and seasonal celebrations, it likely has its roots in pre-Christian traditions based on the seasons. Some believe the festival represented the few days added to the lunar calendar to make it coincide with the solar calendar; since these days were outside the calendar, rules and customs were not obeyed. Others see it as a late-winter celebration designed to welcome the coming spring. As early as the middle of the second century, the Romans observed a Fast of 40 Days, which was preceded by a brief season of feasting, costumes and merrymaking.

In addition to fasting, Christians give up something special that they enjoy. So, Fat Tuesday is the celebratory opportunity to enjoy that favorite food or snack or special something that will be given up. Sort of a glut before the going without.


Visitors to town
These visitors for carnival
bring many strange gifts
Annette Marie Hyder

Fat Tuesday comes into town
she wears beans on her fingers
and a confession crown .
 
Pancakes mantle her
chickens peek forth from her feet .
She is robed from head to toe
in good things to eat
 
Excess runs alongside her
(in comparison a thin bellied pup)
whining and worrying
trying to keep up.
 
The gaunt frame of Lent
limps not too far back
with hands full of emptiness
and sacks full of lack .
 
Forty days of sacrifice
forty days of denying —
an honor for Christians
to commemorate their Lord’s dying
 
and then rising again
to conquer even grim death
with celebration of life
of resurrection and breath.