Happy Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday and Lent
 

:yumeh1:I know it's a bit late for Mardi Gras in most time zones but I just thought of this and saw there was no thread.
So what do you do that is fun of not fun for these days?:yumeh2:

I grew up catholic so have celebrated and observed each pretty much my whole life. I remember in grade school we would have a carnival for Mardi Gras. It was fun the best prize I won was a teddy bear with movable arms and limbs. :)
As an adult I've never gone out to celebrate but I don't like doing that sort of stuff and am content with staying and home and celebrating in my own way. Which ussually involves lots of candy :) I have a sweet tooth you know :D
Which leads in to Ash wednesday. I always go to mass and get the ashes places on my forehead. And it is also a day to fast so three meals and no meat or snacking in between. It seems tough to think about it that way but then I realize I don't really eat much differently than that thoughout a regular day.
Rest of Lent- no meat on fridays Thats's no problem. Because that's how my mom grew up before the church changed the rules. It used to be that every friday including the ones outside of Lent did not include meat. So its fine and fish is nice anyway :) My Italian heritage tells me so hahha .. yeah I'm a dork. So yeah I see this has gotten a bit wordy but Easter is my favorite holiday and Lent just leads up to it and it's something to look forward to every year. Plus it means spring is on it's way and coming very soon :D

Over here we don't have Mardi Gras; we have pancake day! :D So I ate pancakes until I felt sick. :lol:

My whole family are actually aetheist though, so we don't do the rest of it. We're only interested in religious holidays when we get something out of them! :XD

wow... so many celebrations indeed!!

pancake day sounds good huffie!

Oh it is! :squee: It's fabulous pancakes galore!

Pankcakes?!? That is freakin' awesome! But why pancakes? Why not waffles? Or crepes? Or cake?

What do you eat on your pancakes? I eat mine with peanut butter and REAL maple syrup(I far north enough that real syrup is acutally availible. I didn't know that other people couldn't get maple syrup until a few years ago.)

It's because in 'ancient times' it was the best way to use up all the leftover food, we learnt about it in year three or something, I've quite forgotten now. :lol:

Edit: Here's a better phrased explanation:
And that's why we eats pancakes on pancake day, children! :D

i want REAL maple syrup...

airmail me some please?

I'm jealous of you, Akinmytua! :cry: They sell maple syrup here, but it's so expensive (over £5!) we can't afford the real stuff. Only the maple-flavoured syrup that has a golden syrup consistency.

I had mine with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, toffe sauce and strawberry sauce~ not all at once though!

but doesn't the fake ones taste alright too?

Yeah, it tastes okay, just not quite as nice. The real stuff soaks into the pancake nicely, too, because of the consistency, the maple-flavoured syrup is too gloopy for that. ¦X^U

and my boy bought me chocolate for V-Day. Oh well. At least Sundays don't count

Real maple syrup is strong! Really strong! Sometimes we use the fake stuff too (the corn syrup with maple flavoring version) which coats the pancake faster, but you have to use way more! The real kind comes in more flavors than just brown. There are light and dark versions. I like light maple syrup, it's cheaper(so I get it more often) and I can get it for free when it expires at my mom's store. Actually that is the only reason I get that much real maple syrup. I live in the chimney of PA so we get stuff from Canada, NY(they make a crazy amount of maple products, like maple butter spread!), and we are far enough north that we can get stuff from vermont without too much shipping.
I not suprised it cost so much in England, I am asumming beacuse of the pount sign which I can't figure out how to show right now stupid keyboard, because it has to be shipped over and ocean.

Sometimes I wish I was catholic so I could know all those traditions. I think I'll just eat pancakes on Mardi Gras next year!

candy makes everything more awesome!

Doesn't it, though?
Here in Iceland we use Ash Wednesday as a Halloween day of sorts, kids dress up in costumes and go to stores all around town to sing for candy! It's so much fun~, although you get strange looks on the bus if you're 18 and wearing a costume just for the sake of fun...
It's still worth it since you get candy and stuff.

And pancake day sounds FABULOUS!!

Nette I love your avii :3
Happy Ash Wednesday/Lent to you!
I'm not religious but it's the only day that really holds any significance to me
We don't celebrate Mardi Gras here :3

Thank you my dear though I may have changed it a bit since you posted :)
Pancake day sounds fun and I love the meaning of it! Now i'll have to celebrate it every year! tee hee :D but this year mardi gras fell on many meaningful things for me
1. It is my late grandpa's birthday
2. Anniversary of the day I was off chemo when I was 5 yrs old. I had leukemia
3. Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday!
4. Pancake day :D I can now add to the list hee hee

@ Nette: It so happened that Mardi Gras was my birthday too, this year.

hahaha ash wensday we had today at school even though it was yestrday good thing cause i wanted a cross on my head but there was manga club so i couldn't go :P

Happy belated birthday Cardinal! :)



Ooh a manga club that sounds nice. Hee hee yeah I almost forgot to wash the ashes off of my forehead before I went to bed last night. I went to a 7:30 pm mass. That would have been bad if I woke up with a black stain all over my pillow case. lol