While only a fraction of the world is Christian, one of this religion’s unofficial holidays gets major media attention across the globe.
Known almost interchangeably as Mardi Gras and Carnaval, this festival is the wild celebration that comes before the Lenten season. This festival time, which can start as soon as January 9th (the 12th Night, or Epiphany), runs right up to Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras serves as a final hurrah of sorts, letting participants indulge in excesses that will be restricted during the solemn season of Lent.
This tradition is usually traced back to Roman pagan roots. It is not unusual in pagan cultures to engage in revelries, particularly ones involving feasting, before a period of fasting. This particular holiday is often tied to The Feast of Lupercus, or Lupercalia, a revelry which took place between February 13th and 15th on the Julian calendar. This bawdy carnival was supposed to insure the vitality and fertility of the coming spring season. Lupercus (the Romanized version of Pan) is a Roman god of agriculture, though it is worthwhile to note that the holiday is not entirely in his honor. Lupa, the mythic she-wolf that protected and suckled Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome, was also celebrated.
In a trend of syncretism almost second nature to Christianity, this pagan Roman holiday was co-opted, though given a distinctly different meaning. Now it was paired with Lent, the forty days of fasting and sacrifice meant to emulate Jesus of Nazareth’s time of tribulation in the desert. This gave the holiday a more poignant meaning, especially since Lent ends with the celebration of Easter (another ancient pagan ritual adopted by Christianity, and a story for another time). The ecstatic commemoration of Jesus’ return from the grave truly idealizes the rebirth of spring for the Christian world, and thus it is fitting with the message of Lupercalia and ancient proto-Germanic worship of Eostre.
