Mardi Gras

So the cafeteria decided to celebrate Mardi Gras today. As in purple, green and gold everywhere, and cajun on the menu. I thought it was kinda weird for Biola to be endorsing such an...irreverant holiday, and couple that with the fact that the music they were playing was not even real jazz (it was clearly swing, and it was a CD, to top off the shame). The only thing that saved the cafe was, well, the food.

Mmmmmmmm, jambalaya-like stuff. Rice and sausage. Stuff so good I actually dragged my sheepish little self back into the line for SECONDS.

And so, I forgave the foolishness.

But it made me curious about what Mardi Gras is really all about. So I checked it out.

It turns out that the word is francais for "fat Tuesday," an apt name considering all I've eaten today. As we all know, it's a crazy cultural carnival with parades, masquerades, and the notorious beads. But less frequently observed is the day it's supposed to precede.

I'm talking about Ash Wednesday. Yep, one of those obscure holidays that's marked in tiny print on the wall calendar. The kind that ranks up there with Rosh Hashanah (huh?), Yom Kippur (wha--?), and Boxing Day [Canada] (*quizzical head scratch*).

On the traditional Christian calendar, it marks 40 days (minus Sundays) before Easter. It starts the Lenten fast, which used to be uber strict--only one meal a day, with no meat or dairy before sundown. Basically, Lent is a time of solemn reflection that ultimately leads up to the most significant time of the year--the Passion Week.

But on Ash Wednesday, Catholics visit their priest to get ashes rubbed on their foreheads in the shape of a cross. The priest gets the ash from burnt palm branches he's saved from last year's Palm Sunday. When he puts them on the person's forehead, he says "Remember, man, that you are dust and unto dust you shall return." That begins their 40 day semi-fast.

Yeah, kinda weird. But at the same time it's all kinda profound. What better way to acknowledge the coming of a King than to give up something that has partial dominion over you? I know I'm a slave to eating in a way. I seriously love the cafe and love snacking on peanut butter and cornflakes and Cheerios and Wheat Thins when I'm in my room.

But it's so habitual, so addicting. I HAVE to have something to munch on when I'm working. I can't function without it.

So here's my little modest resolution. Tomorrow I will observe Lent by planning prayer in place of dinner. I will try to resist those cravings and the munchies. Instead I'll be thinking of how good God is and how unworthy I am of him.

And with that, I say goodbye to Mardi Gras, with your cloying self-indulgence.

And hello to a new day, Ash Wednesday, with a bent on self-denial.