Easter - Mardi Gras

       When will Easter be this year? what has Mardi Gras got to do with Easter?

                                               

Easter (name taken from an unrelated German feast, otherwise known as Pascha) refers to the day of resurrection of Jesus, so it is the most important celebration in Christianity. However, because of the perplexity in the determination of the date every year the event has lost its gravity in the West, although in the East it continues unchanged (schools get a 2-week break, people follow the rituals, esp. fasting). Jesus was crucified on the 14^th of the Nisan month when the Jews happened to sacrifice the Paschal lamb. The Resurrection took place on a Sunday, so that day of the week became a day of celebration and overtook the event of the crucifixion in importance. Fasting before Easter became popular, therefore, it was necessary to know the date beforehand. Since it was linked to the Jewish celebration, Pascha, Easter was linked to that unrelated event which was held on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox! However, differences in longitude can give different dates, thus churches have argued and quarreled over the date of Easter for centuries. Besides some churches still use the Julian Calendar (all the arguments can fill up a book easily). It was recently proposed to have a set date for Easter, just like for Christmas, but this has not been ratified and probably will never be.

We also hear of the Mardi Gras (Great Tuesday) in New Orleans and, at the same time, the Carnival of Rio de Janeiro that attract many tourists to both places. These events are supposed to be followed by fasting, but there is no such reference when these events get reported. Would you start fasting when you think of, or see the Mardi Gras Craziness ? or the Rio nakedness ! That would be the day !

To get an explanation for these events one has to go back where they were originally celebrated: in Greece where most events have ancient roots.

This Carnival, or Apokries as it is called locally, is a 3-week event originally a worship to Dionysos, god of wine and feast. Parading, costuming and feasting escalate in the last 3 days before the beginning of the 40 days of Lent (basically 40 days without meat). Carnival literally means “goodbye to meat”, so is Apokries. The largest carnivals today are at Rio and New Orleans (you see them in the news), but are more numerous in cities around Greece today (only see them if you are there). Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent is equivalent to “Clean Monday” (with ‘pure food’, without shedding of blood), a holiday in Greece, basically a family day with kite flying as a national sport for that day. As for food, emphasis goes into grains, such as flat bread and macaroni (the word means ‘blessed’ and ‘eternal’, from a special service for the dead which happens to be 2 days before Lent).

So, there you have it old customs mixed with the new.