Today, Tuesday, February 21, 2023, is celebrated as Fat Tuesday in the Western Christian tradition. Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday is the Tuesday that comes just before Vibhuti Budha, the beginning of Lent. It is known as Mardi Gras according to the French Catholic tradition. Mardi Gras is the French equivalent of Fat Tuesday. It is also nicknamed Pancake Tuesday after the place where this celebration is held.
What is Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras? The fatherhood celebration of Eastern Syriac Catholics is known as Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, and Mardi Gras among Western Christians, including Roman Catholics. Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, is the culmination of the weeks or days of carnival celebrations that begin on January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany. As the date of Easter, the biggest Christian holiday, changes every year, so do the dates of the closely related Easter, Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras.
According to the faith tradition of Eastern Syriac Christians, Patrith is celebrated on the Sunday before the Monday that begins the 50-day Lent (Sunday, February 19 this year). Eastern Syrian Christians abstain from meat, fish, animal fats, and foods containing them during the 50 days of fasting, so in preparation for that, they eat these forbidden foods on a full stomach and prepare for fasting. Westerners aim to use up all the high-fat foods such as eggs, butter, and meat before fasting. During the fasting days, whatever foods we like to avoid, we eat them again before fasting and fulfill our hope through the celebration of fatherhood.
This writer’s childhood memories are vividly marked by the enthusiastic preparation of all rural households to celebrate the end of Lent. Slaughterhouses will be active the day before Fatherhood Sunday. Goat, buffalo, pig, chicken and duck are prepared by the butchers in advance for the fatherhood celebration. Meat and fish dishes are ready in all Christian homes on Saturday, Easter and Sunday. It is possible to eat all these things together with a full stomach only in Pethrithai. During the fifty days of fasting, the householders do not buy fish and meat or agree to use it. At that time, the great fasting was so strict among the Marthomma Nasrani.
Fat Tuesday is to indulge in rich food, including fatty fish and meat, until the day before fasting. Pancake made with eggs, milk and sugar is a special dish on Fat Tuesday. Shops selling pancakes and donuts prepared in the traditional way are crowded on that day.
The Mardi Gras festival, which is held in the center of New Orleans in southern Louisiana in the United States, can be said to be a celebration of the fatherhood of Christians in the French tradition. Mardi Gras festival features a parade with expensive colorful costumes and masks, face painting, carnival and various food stalls. In addition to New Orleans, Galveston, Texas, Pensacola, Florida, San Diego, California, and Mobile, Alabama also celebrate Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras on a grand scale.
While Eastern Syriac Christians mark the 50-day fast by celebrating Patertha, Western Christians mark the 40-day fast by celebrating Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday. Both have the same goal.
Christendom is entering Great Lent this week. It is just that there is a difference in the traditions of the Western Churches and the Eastern Churches in terms of when fasting begins.
While the Western Catholic churches, including the Latin Rite, and other non-Catholic Western Christian churches observe 40 days of fasting from Ash Wednesday to Easter Thursday, Syrian Christians, including Catholics, in the Eastern tradition spend 25% more days than that, that is, 50 days in prayer, renunciation, fasting, and almsgiving. East Syriac Christians observe a fifty-day fast, non-stop from midnight on Father Sunday until Easter, the feast of hope and light, and every Sunday.
U. S. Catholics between the ages of 18 and 59 are required to fast and abstain from meat on Shrove Wednesday and Good Friday, according to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference. Likewise, all Catholics over the age of 14 are required to abstain from meat on every Friday of Lent. But apart from the age requirement, the differently-abled, mentally retarded, pregnant women, lactating mothers and those with serious medical conditions are exempted from these conditions.
Lent is an opportunity to get closer to the presence of God by spending more time in fasting, prayer, and meditating on the scriptures with fasting, abstaining from junk food and unnecessary talk. Fasting means to cleanse the body and mind and become a new person.
