Mardi Gras

Tonight, we celebrate Mardi Gras. Mardi means Tuesday. Gras means oil. Oily Tuesday if you wish. We eat meat because tomorrow we will abstain from eating meat. In the olden times, people practiced a stricter fast. It was practiced on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and all Fridays of Lent. Now, we just have two days of obligatory fasting and abstinence, namely: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

You may still fast and abstain on all Fridays of Lent or even on all Fridays of the year in a devotional capacity. There are Christian communities where fasting and abstinence are practiced from the last meal on Holy Thursday up to Holy Saturday after the Easter Vigil. It is not advisable for those with health conditions to practice fasting and abstinence, however. In fact, the Church’s precepts on fasting and abstinence exempts the sick, pregnant women and manual laborers.

It is important to understand the age requirement, too. All those who are 14 years and older are required to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Fasting has a different age requirement. It is for healthy people 18-59 years of age.

It is time to say goodbye to all the alleluias for a while. There will be no alleluias starting tomorrow until the Easter Vigil. Yes, we’ll miss them for about forty-six days, to be exact. The priests will be wearing purple vestments as a symbol of our penitence. There will be no flowers in all our Churches during this season of Lent.