Today is "Mardi Gras" is french for "Fat Tuesday". This day is also know as Carnival or Shrove Tuesday. Traditionally, "Fat Tuesday" is a day for eating up leftover rich foods and drink... a sort of a "Last Hoorah" before Lent begins tomorrow, on Ash Wednesday. Lent is a time of fasting and repentance, which lasts up until Easter.

In our house, there will be no ice cream in the freezer, no sweets of any kind. The girl scout cookies I've ordered will have to wait for consumption until after easter...or perhaps I'll donate them to a food pantry. Tonight we'll eat a good meal. Tomorrow we'll fast. And I'll have to ignore those candy bars that I buy impuslively at the grocery store. It seems like this might be difficult. But I am doing this freely and joyfully.

For those of you who would like to know more about Mardi Gras, here are a couple of links:

http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/MardiGras/

http://www.novareinna.com/festive/mardi.html