Every Tuesday is Fat Tuesday when I look in the mirror…bada-bum! Yet, today is Fat Tuesday which in some cultures is a religious holiday. Fat Tuesday is Mardi Gras. “Gras” is French for fat and “Mardi” is French for Tuesday. The annual festivities start on January 6, the Twelfth Night Feast of the Epiphany, when the three kings are supposed to have visited the Christ Child. The festivities build to a climax on Mardi Gras which always occur on the day before Ash Wednesday. The parties and parades will continue until Lent begins at the stroke of midnight on Tuesday. Mardi Gras is a legal holiday in New Orleans. It is scheduled to occur 46 days before Easter. For the rest of us who don’t treat it as a religious holiday, there’s great music like this 1955 track Chenier cut for Specialty Records and those Polish donuts they call Pączki. The Pączki technically should be eaten on the last Thursday before Fat Tuesday, but they are more commonly eaten on Fat Tuesday. Confused? Yup!
