It seems like a day with enough meanings that you can find a definition that suits each of us.
Many churches celebrate tonight with pancake dinners which were born from the traditional efforts to remove the rich foods from the cabinets (eggs, flour, and sugar) before the observance of Lent with practiced deprivation from life's luxuries.
Justifying Mardi Gras seems to originate along the same line, but with an individual emphasis on excess. Kind of like a time to do all those things you normally wouldn't since Lent which starts with Ash Wednesday tomorrow is a time of repentance... so we might as well have something to repent. Or so the thinking goes....
It seems that is at least one way its viewed. Mardi Gras seems to have drifted quite a ways from its religious origins. Now, its another reason to party.
Lent moves around our calendar each year. Six weeks, forty days of remembering why it is Christ came to earth. Sundays are not counted as days of Lent - they represent Easter and celebrates Jesus' victory over sin and the grave.
You find Easter on the calendar each year as the Sunday which follows the first full moon after the vernal equinox. In 2015 it is earlier than its been the past couple of years - so we begin Lent earlier as a result.
Enjoy some pancakes today, have some fun, remaining mindful of the season we start tomorrow.
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