A Fat Tuesday Interlude

Fat Tuesday

In countries of the Carnival tradition, the day before Ash Wednesday is known either as Fat Tuesday (Portuguese, Terça-feira Gorda; French, Mardi Gras; Italian, Martedì Grasso; Swedish, Fettisdagen; Estonian, Vastlapäev), or the "Tuesday of Carnival" (Spanish, Martes de Carnaval; Portuguese, Terça-feira de Carnaval; German, Faschingsdienstag). This is in reference to eating special foods before the fasting season of Lent.

For German American populations, such as Pennsylvania Dutch Country, it is known as Fastnacht Day (also spelled Fasnacht, Fausnacht, Fauschnaut, or Fosnacht). The Fastnacht is made from fried potato dough and served with dark corn syrup. In John Updike's novel Rabbit Run, the main character remembers a Fosnacht Day tradition where the last person to rise would be teased by the other family members and called a "Fosnacht."

In Hawaii, this day is also known as Malasada Day, which dates back to the days of the sugar plantations of the 1800s. The occupying Portuguese used up their butter and sugar prior to Lent by making large batches of malasada (doughnuts).

[Oh, the things I do not know! Oy. Portuguese occupied Hawaii?] [I have had the privilege of eating a malasada - having spent such a long time in New Bedford, MA, Portuguese Capital of the Southcoast, New England. You eventually just gotta try one. I did resist for a while. They are SO good. Okay, I have definitely eaten more than one.]

In Iceland the day is known as Sprengidagur ("Bursting Day") and is marked by the eating of salt meat and peas.

In Lithuania the day is called Užgavėnės. People eat pancakes (blynai) and Lithuanian-style doughnuts called spurgos.

In Michigan, especially in the Hamtramck area near Detroit with its large Polish community, Pączki Day is celebrated with pączki eating contests, music and Polish food. Semla.

In Sweden, the day is marked by eating a traditional pastry, called semla or fastlagsbulle, a sweet bun filled with almond paste and whipped cream. Originally, the pastry was only eaten on this day sometimes served in a bowl of hot milk. Eventually the tradition evolved to eat the bun on every Tuesday leading up to Easter, as after the Reformation, the Protestant Swedes no longer observed a strict Lent. Today, semlas are available in shops and bakeries every day from shortly after Christmas until Easter. The semla is now often eaten as a regular pastry, without the hot milk. The semla is also traditional in Finland but they are usually filled with jam instead of almond paste.

Among Anglicans, Lutherans and some other Protestant denominations, and among cultures in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, this day is also known as Pancake Tuesday, as it is customary to eat pancakes on this day.[5][6][7]

Pancakes and doughnuts are associated with the day preceding Lent because they were a way to use up rich foodstuffs such as eggs, milk, and sugar, before the fasting season of the 40 days of Lent. The liturgical fasting emphasized eating plainer food and refraining from food that would give pleasure: In many cultures, this means no meat, dairy, or eggs.

[all information courtesy of Wikipedia]

From the AP today:

Baby, 4 others shot at Mardi Gras parade:

NEW ORLEANS -- An infant and at least five other people were shot Tuesday along a parade route packed with Mardi Gras revelers, police said.

Two suspects were in custody and the victims were recovering.

The shootings happened near the Garden District about 1:40 p.m. after the last major parade of the celebration, Rex, had ended. Hundreds of truck floats that follow the parade were passing when gunfire broke out.

Police spokesman Bob Young said the victims were taken to local hospitals. The infant was grazed by a bullet and not seriously hurt, Young said.

Dr. Jim Parry, 41, a surgeon who was with a gathering of doctors near the shooting site, ran over to tend to one man who he said had been shot in the

abdomen. "He kept asking me, 'Was I shot? Was I shot?'" Paramedics arrived and took over for the Air Force reservist.

"I'm off to Afghanistan this summer. Damn, this is more dangerous than Afghanistan," Parry said.

Two male suspects, ages 18 and 20, were in custody and three weapons believed used in the shooting had been recovered, Young said.

The violence along the oak-lined Uptown streetcar line marred what had been a generally peaceful day of revelry in which hundreds of thousands of
people partied in the streets on the final day of Carnival.

.........others kept waiting for beads and other trinkets being tossed from the floats as if nothing had happened. "They had an ambulance out here picking the guy up off the street and people didn't stop vying for throws," Beals said.

--Associated Press

[What the heck! A cheap plastic string of beads is worth more than taking cover for your life?? Just another day in the zoo, I guess! Yikes. I think we'll make pancakes tonight. Shake off the weirdness.]