In Petrushka, I always loved the movement titled Shrovetide Fair. It always sounded like an attractive celebration. I pictured folks gomboling. (Not Las Vegas style.) Carnivals are always a lot of fun. Today, I did some reading on Mardi Gras, and discovered all sorts of interesting things. In New Orleans, they celebrate Fat Tuesday. My wife asked me what Fat Tuesday was, and I told her that as far as I knew, it was the day before Ash Wednesday, where people overindulge before fasting for lent. Of course, I realize that fasting for lent is something almost nobody does any more. When I read about the Mardi Gras, I had to laugh at how commonly used words have taken on a completely different meaning. Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday. In America, they could just as easily call it doughnut Tuesday... a day when you eat all the fattening foods you (in theory) are going to give up for lent so that you won't look like a beached whale when you try on your swimming suit.

And of course, everyone loves a carnival. The root word there is the same as in Chili con carne, and carnivorous. The word carnival means without meat. Imagine if you said to your kids, "Hey, you want to go to the carnival tonight? we won't be eating any meat." Hold the hot dogs.

And what about the Shrovetide Fair. You English folks already know about this, so no need to read further. "Shrove" means "to repent."
Now there's an attractive come-on. "Hey, honey, you want to go to the Shrovetide Fair? I hear we can repent there." More likely, the Shrovetide Fair was a celebration (probably not a carnival, without meat) where you did all the stuff it took forty days of repentance to make up for, starting the next day on Ash Wednesday."

And the word Lent comes from the middle English word "lente" which means springtime.

If you take all of these words literally, it would make the lenten season hopelessly confusing. And there is no mention of Lent in the bible.

Go figure...

Jerry