Fat Tuesday may be a new term for you. This day has a long history in Christianity, and its traditions are wrapped up in both Lent and celebrations that predate Christianity. For that reason, Christians need to understand Fat Tuesday and some of its history.
Fat Tuesday is more appropriately known as Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. Kelly Givens explains that significance in her Christianity.com article “What Is Ash Wednesday?”:
“Each year, Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent and is always 46 days before Easter Sunday. Lent is a 40-day season (not counting Sundays) marked by repentance, fasting, reflection, and ultimately celebration. The 40-day period represents Christ’s time of temptation in the wilderness, where he fasted and where Satan tempted him. Lent asks believers to set aside a time each year for similar fasting, marking an intentional season of focus on Christ’s life, ministry, sacrifice, and resurrection.”
Ash Wednesday starts Lent off with fasting; congregants usually put ashen crosses on their foreheads. If their church still has the palm branches from the previous year’s Palm Sunday, they might burn those branches to signify the start of the new Lenten season. Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and Protestants all observe Lent, although Protestant denominations are typically less strict about fasting and other Lenten observances.
Because Eastern Orthodox churches follow a different church calendar (the Julian calendar instead of the Gregorian calendar), they will observe Shrove Tuesday on a different date than most churches in the Western hemisphere.
For both Eastern and Western churches, the date for Shrove Tuesday will vary each year because it happens 47 days before Easter Sunday, which is a moving date. As this Christianity.com article explains, early Christians often celebrated Easter on a Sunday close to Passover, but that changed with the Council of Nicaea:
“One of the purposes of the Council of Nicaea in 325 was to settle that date. Constantine wanted Christianity to be totally separated from Judaism and did not want Easter to be celebrated on the Jewish Passover. The Council of Nicaea accordingly required the feast of the resurrection to be celebrated on a Sunday and never on the Jewish Passover. Easter was to be the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.”
So, the date of Shrove Tuesday changes a little each year, depending on the equinox calendar. The following are the dates for Shrove Tuesday from 2023 through 2028:
February 21, 2023
February 13, 2024
March 4, 2025
February 17, 2026
February 9, 2027
February 29, 2028
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Because Ash Wednesday starts the Lenten fast, Shrove Tuesday is the last day that observing Christians will have fatty foods or meat (fish excluded) until Easter Sunday. What Christians are allowed to eat during Lent varies a little by denomination and how strict their particular church is about following the oldest traditions. Some Christians will avoid eating anything during Lent, while others abstain from meat. Catholics will typically abstain from any meat except fish (which tradition has designated as a meat substitute) and may avoid cooking anything with eggs, oils, or fats.
Consequently, Fat Tuesday is traditionally a day when Christians getting ready for Lent will use up the fatty food items in their stores. For this reason, Fat/Shrove Tuesday is also often called Pancake Tuesday because many people will eat pancakes to use up all those ingredients. Hope Bolinger explains the history of Pancake Tuesday in the United Kingdom, which goes back centuries:
“English pancakes, at least in the Anglo-Saxon period, had a different look and taste altogether. People would partake in a lemon-syrup-infused treat prior to Ash Wednesday. According to Historic UK, each component of the pancake represented something different. The egg (creation), flour (staff of life), salt (wholesomeness, aka salt of the earth), milk (purity).
But in reality, although they could create symbols for each of these ingredients, people probably ate pancakes for more of a practical purpose. They contained eggs, sugar, and fat, items they would not consume for the duration of Lent. It’s a somewhat similar idea to someone engorging themselves on food right before a long fast.
According to History Extra, “The earliest known English (pancake) recipe dates from the 15th century, although pancakes had been eaten in other countries for centuries before that. In the French-speaking world, the day is known as ‘Mardi Gras’ or ‘Fat Tuesday.’”
(Excerpted from “What is Shrove Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday, and Should Christians Celebrate It?”)
Other countries (particularly Baltic countries and parts of Canada) also eat pancakes or variations on pancakes for Fat/Shrove Tuesday. Christians who practice confession will often take Shrove Tuesday as the day to confess sins and consider their spiritual lives before entering Lent.
As Bolinger mentions in the quote above, Mardis Gras is French for “Fat Tuesday.” Blair Parke explains in her Crosswalk.com article about Fat Tuesday that Mardi Gras has its origins in pagan fertility festivals celebrating the start of the spring. For agricultural societies, where the start of the spring meant the end of waiting out the cold and living on stored food, spring planting would have been a huge event.
Throughout church history, Christians have taken existing pagan festivals (spring festivals to the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre, etc.) and used some of their traditions for new Christian festivals. The same thing seems to have happened with Mardi Gras in early church history, with the celebrations being redirected as Shrove Tuesday celebrations. Sources like the official New Orleans Mardi Gras website suggest it didn’t take off as a Catholic festival until the medieval period. French-speaking immigrants brought Mardi Gras to America, and it’s believed the first Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans happened on March 3, 1699.
Since Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras are intertwined, you’ll likely hear the term used mainly by people who celebrate Mardi Gras or come from French-speaking countries. In the same way pre-Christian imagery (bunnies, eggs, etc.) has become part of Easter, Mardi Gras is a mix of Christian and pre-Christian imagery. Since Mardi Gras is a carnival holiday, it often involves rowdy or over-sexualized behavior that Christians should know about before participating. For example, Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans’ French Quarter often feature topless women wearing masquerade masks.
Mardi Gras’ pagan roots do not necessarily mean Christians can’t celebrate Mardi Gras. We have clear commands to avoid sinful behavior like drunkenness and gluttony. If we are with other Christians who have particular weaknesses that we don’t have ourselves, we are commanded to keep each other safe and not create extra temptations (1 Corinthians 8:9-13). We should also consider the pagan roots of whatever traditions we are participating in. We may find it’s best to avoid traditional Mardi Gras celebrations and create an alternative festival at our local church (for example, a Fat Tuesday pancake breakfast to celebrate the countdown to Easter).
Within those parameters, we still have the freedom to participate in community celebrations of various kinds, from Christmas events featuring yule logs to Easter events featuring bunnies and beyond. Paul’s teaching for Christians concerned about eating meat offered to idols in 1 Corinthians 8 applies here: pagan idols are nothing, so we don’t have to obsess about whether we sinned by being indirectly associated with pagan customs. We should be careful but not fearful. We should remember that not all things are beneficial (1 Corinthians 6:13), yet we have freedom in Christ (1 Corinthians 8-9).
Further Reading:
What is Lent? Meaning, History, and Traditions of the Lenten Season
Is the Goddess Eostre Connected to Easter?
Photo Credit: Lynne Mitchell/Getty Images
Learn more about the meaning and significance behind the Easter holiday and Holy Week celebrations:
What is Lent? and When Does Lent Start?
What is Ash Wednesday? and When is Ash Wednesday?
What is Palm Sunday?
What is Maundy Thursday?
What is Good Friday? and When is Good Friday?
What is Holy Saturday?
What is Easter? and When is Easter Sunday?
Easter Bible Verses
The Resurrection of Jesus
Easter Prayers