"WHEREFORE, MY DEARLY BELOVED, FLEE FROM IDOLATRY"

(1st Corinthians 10:14)

By Curtis Pugh

It will be evident to the candid observer that Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday, Lent and Easter are all tied together in the religious world. One follows after the other and are connected in the liturgical calendar. The various pagan days and even liturgical colors which are used in decorating crosses and buildings along with the liturgical calendar have been adopted by the Catholic hierarchy. So the observance of such paganism on the days decided by these prelates is obedience to them. We should hasten to add that there is nothing in the Bible instructing anyone to observe any of these days nor how such observance should be carried out. In spite of this some Baptist churches have begun to drape crosses with the liturgical colors and already most observe the pagan feast of Ishtar (Easter).

Mardi Gras actually means “Fat Tuesday” and is the height of the carnival season. This day got its name as being the last day on which meat could be eaten before the observance of Lent. Lent, not counting the six Sundays involved, lasts for forty days leading up to Easter. The celebration or observance of Easter actually includes Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday although in some countries different names are used. For instance in some countries what is called “Good Friday” in the U.S. is called “Black Friday” because it is erroneously believed that Christ was crucified on Friday which is an impossibility, of course.

Mardi Gras is given over to carnival. The word carni/val comes from two words: “carne” means flesh as in “chili con carne” which is literally “chilies with meat.” “Val” is connected with our English word “valedictorian” - the “good bye speech” common at graduations. So the meaning of carnival is “good bye to meat.” “Mardi Gras” is “Fat Tuesday” and immediately precedes “Ash Wednesday” commonly called because in the beginning of Lent comes the practice of going to “church” and getting the sign of the cross made on the forehead by the priest using ashes.

So Mardi Gras is carnival – a time of immorality, debauchery, drunkenness, over indulgence in feasting – in short: a time of base carnality and wickedness before settling down to the time of penance and self denial before Easter. In other words it is one last super-big fling before trying to be good for forty days so that the individual can observe Easter.

Doing one's “Easter Duty” means that the Catholic church requires every person who has received their first communion take the Eucharist (mass) during the time around Easter. To make it easy, the time period called “Easter season” runs for fifty days from Easter to Pentecost. Sometime during this time, in order to stay in the good graces of the Catholic church every Catholic must attend mass and eat the sun-shaped wafer which has been turned into the body and blood of Christ by the priest's hocus pocus.