With Ash Wednesday fast approaching, there is a celebration that is also fast approaching completion as well: Mardi Gras.  Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is a wonderful celebration right before the beginning of Lent, which is where we enter into a season of fasting and penance.  With such a big celebration, what are the origins of this day before Lent starts?

Mardi Grad is the day before the start of Lent. It ends the period of Ordinary Time and has its origins from the early Church.  Many Christians realized that if one was entering into a season where they had to give up something, they wanted to have one last moment to enjoy those things.  It was also a day that many in the early Church saw themselves coming out of their pagan backgrounds into a life enlightened by faith and Christ.  It was meant to be leaving behind an old life filled with earthly pleasures to move into a life filled with a connection with the eternal.  As a background, this concept gives light to the Mardi Gras season.

The season of Mardi Gras begins at Epiphany.  The three wise men (sometimes referred to as the three kings) come from Gentile backgrounds to encounter the incarnate God in the Christ child.  The eternal light came into the world not to just save the Jews, but to save the entire world.  Pagans are now enlightened by true faith and religion in Christ.  This begins a great celebration of the Incarnation into the world from Epiphany until Ash Wednesday.  It is why the King Cake is well-known during Mardi Gras.  The cake itself recalls the kings that find the infant like we find the infant baked into the cake. 

Mardi Gras is not just a day we fill up on our last breath of debauchery and sin before a season of penance.  Mardi Gras is a celebration of Christ coming into the world pulling us out of debauchery and sin into the light of the Incarnation.  It also prepares us for what the Light will do at the conclusion of the Lenten Season: sacrifice himself so that we may have life.  As we enter into our final celebrations tomorrow before the beginning of Lent, let us remember that we are celebrating how our God came into the world in order to save us.