You Thought You Knew Mardi Gras?

Mardi Gras, also known as Fat Tuesday, is a traditional Christian feast that doesn’t just start with Mardi Gras day itself, but on the Christian holiday of the Epiphany (Jan. 6). It runs until 47 days before Easter (the actual Fat Tuesday).

Easter is a moveable feast (or a feast whose date changes every year) that falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox, or April 8 this year. 

The date has to move because Easter happens a week after Passover, which is a Jewish holiday, and the date of Passover is calculated according to the traditional Hebrew calendar—which is based on the cycles of the moon instead of the sun (with our calendar). 

The full Mardi Gras season is also known as Carnival (which literally means “to remove meat,” because Christians traditionally abstain from meat during the season before Easter). Carnival is celebrated worldwide; the biggest Carnival celebration is in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and includes parades, costumes, and dancing. But celebrations vary across the world, and the Carnival in Venice or Mardi Gras in New Orleans wouldn’t recognize some of their holiday cousins:

Carnival in Denmark is called “Fastelavn,” and is something of a Nordic Halloween, with kids dressing up in costumes and going from house to house, asking for treats; they play a game called “slå katten af tønden” or “hit the cat out of the barrel,” in which a wooden barrel showing a picture of a cat and full of candy is hit until the candy spilled out (the barrel traditionally contained a real, live black cat). 

In Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, the day is known as “Shrove Tuesday” or “Pancake Day,” on which pancakes are eaten and a pancake race is held in which the runners carry pancakes in a frying pan while flipping their pancakes as they run. Even the British Parliament runs a pancake race, with the lower and upper house both sponsoring teams. In some countries, the pancakes are cooked with symbols that tell the eater’s fortune for the year, like coins for wealth. Some parts of England, like Cornwall, also celebrate Nickanan Night on the Monday before by knocking on doors and other pranks. 

Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate Easter on a different date, and they start their period of fasting on a Monday rather than a Wednesday. “Maslenitsa” is the name of the Russian celebration the week before the fast begins, and falls from Feb. 20 to Feb. 26 this year; this is also called Pancake Week or Cheese Week, and lots of blini (pancakes) are eaten. The Greeks also celebrate the same week and have “Smoke Thursday,” where everyone eats roast beef dinners at each others’ houses. People also disguise themselves in masks and play pranks on each other. 

So if you can’t make it to New Orleans (or to another big Carnival, Pancake Day, or other celebration), you can still celebrate by wearing masks, playing pranks, and... eating sumptuous food.

Cookbooks for your Mardi Gras, Carnival, or Other Celebration

Commander’s Kitchen, by Ti Adelade Martin.  The cookbook from Commander’s Palace, a famous, longstanding New Orleans restaurant. 

Café Brazil, by Michael Bateman.  A Brazilian cookbook. 

Danish Cooking and Baking Traditions, by Arthur L. Meyer.  A Danish cookbook.

The Food and Cooking of Russia, by Elena Mahkohko. A Russian cookbook.