Ukrainian Orthodoxy		Orthodoxie ukrainienne

Mardi Gras and Lent:  Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler!

Dr. Alexander Roman alex.roman@unicorne.org

Western Christianity begins its Lent in the middle of the first week on Ash Wednesday. 

The day before is called "Mardi Gras" or "Fat Tuesday" (some call it "Pancake Tuesday") and the week leading up to this is "Carnival" which, in some places, is quite the orgiastic party.

Since meat and meat by-products could not (formerly in the West) be consumed during Lent, all milk and eggs were disposed of through the making of pancakes the day before Lent.  Sins were also disposed of or "shriven" in confession on that day which is why it is also called "Shrove Tuesday."  Formerly, if one wanted to go to confession, one asked a priest to be "shriven."

The Ukrainian tradition has "Zapusty" that suggests a kind of winding down, letting go experience prior to the period of Lenten fasting.

In Brazil, there are the famous Carnival celebrations.  "Carnival" literally means "Good-bye meat!"  ("Carne" - meat, "vale" - good-bye).

Mardi Gras has taken on an existence of its own in North America.  New Orleans, Louisiana is the Mardi Gras capital and the city profits from Mardi Gras each year to the tune of $1 billion!

Beads, coins, Kingcakes, carnival parades organized by "krewes," the King of Mardi Gras - all this is part of the landscape of a tradition that, in its extreme forms, has more to do with paganism than with Christianity.

This is not to say that Mardi Gras cannot be celebrated in a moral manner.  It is only that this doesn't seem to occur to many when they do celebrate it.

An ironic twist is afforded when we consider that all this partying is historically rooted in a desire to have "one last good time" before the season of fasting and penance.  Western Lent has become such a spiritual non-event in terms of totally relaxed fasting rules that the original idea behind Mardi Gras seems to have evaporated.

There is, of course, nothing wrong, in principle with Mardi Gras.  A problem with all the hard partying develops, however, when it appears as if the Church is somehow against the body and celebration.  It is as if Mardi Gras exists to balance the undue asceticism of the Church, the quintessential "kill-joy!"

Nothing, however, could be further from the truth.

The Incarnation of the Word of God, Jesus Christ, is a truth which shows that matter - matters!

Historically, the religions of the world had little use for the human body.  In Hinduism, for example, gods do take on human shape to perform certain things on earth.  But then they return from whence they came, discarding those same bodies.

Christian revelation teaches us that Christ reigns in Heaven as One Divine Person in two united Natures.  

As the Fathers taught, we will see the wounds that Christ endured for our salvation when we get to Heaven.  St Nicholas Cabasilas wrote that these wounds are the marks of God's love for us and He cherishes them as one would cherish a prize.

Our destiny as Christians living in Christ is to be united with our bodies on the Last Day and so live with Christ and the Saints forever.

And our salvation isn't only founded on our faith and trust in Christ.  "Whatosever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto Me" is also what we must be about doing.The Church has always had a balanced attitude when it came to the body-spirit dichotomy of our existence.

We are not all called to be great ascetics living in strenuous self-denial.  But we are also, by the same token, to live as Christians and not as if only the body and its base needs were all that mattered.

For example, although Christians abstained from meat and sex during Lent, there is a Canon that says that it would be wrong for a (married) Christian to abstain from either during Paschal Week, unless, of course, one is in the monastic state.  

I remember discussing this matter with my former religion class as a way to teach them about balance in our spiritual lives. 

The boys, whom I (mistakenly) thought were more mature than this, were very interested in the sex part.  One actually turned to a girl sitting next to him and said, "Is Thursday in Easter Week good for you?"

Lent is about re-establishing the balance that we tend to lose throughout the year.  It is not about losing weight, even though that isn't a bad thing either.

Self-effacement need not be punishing.  The Eastern Church does not preach self-torture!

The deeper prayer and spiritual exercises of Lent is designed to help us become more reflective on our lives and the direction in which we are going, either toward or away from God.

Fasting is not only a way to clear our head and make ourselves sober.  It is also a way in which we witness to the eschatological reality that the things of this world are fleeting and that our real home is in the next.  Fasting allows us the experience in the "now" of living in Who is to come.

The Second Coming of Christ should be a real part of our daily faith.  It is an event that the Divine Liturgy celebrates as if it has already happened.

As we leave the Nativity Season or the Season of the First Coming of Christ, we enter into the desert to contemplate Him as He came to Calvary and as He appeared before His Disciples after His Resurrection and during His Ascension.  

This is also how He will come again at His Second Coming.  Our lives are lived in Christ, between His two Advents to the world.

For some of us, the entire prospect is frightening.  How does one prepare for something like that? 

The reaction of many of us would probably be a feeling of guilt for all our past material and physical indulgences.Some of us may even promise to deny ourselves to the point of pain as an "acceptable" way of making amends.

Yet, Christ doesn't ask that of us.  He asks of us faith, hope and love.  He asks us to know Him and to pray to Him for the Grace of the Holy Spirit so that we may become Temples in which the Holy Trinity may dwell.

Mardi Gras is essentially a Christian celebration, once the pagan trappings are discarded from it.

But it pales by comparison to the celebration we are all called to by Christ as we deepen our lives lived in Him in preparation for the coming Kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

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