Mardi Gras

[ mahr-dee grah ]

noun
  1. the day before Lent, celebrated in some cities, such as New Orleans and Paris, as a day of revelry and merrymaking.: See also Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday.

  2. a pre-Lenten carnival period climaxing on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.

Origin of Mardi Gras

1
First recorded in 1690–1700; from French: literally, “fat Tuesday”; mardi “Tuesday,” Old French marsdi, from Latin diēs Mārtis, Mārtis diēs “day of Mars” (cf. dismal, martial ); gras “fat,” from Latin grassus “fat, thick”

word story For Mardi Gras

Just about everyone knows that Mardi Gras, translated literally from French as Fat Tuesday, is closely associated with the gaudy blowout in New Orleans just before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Lent is the Christian 40-day pre-Easter season of prayer and fasting.
There are at least a couple of different explanations for the name of the day. One is the French custom of parading a fat ox ( bœuf gras ) during the celebration of the holiday (one wonders what became of the ox). The other, more common explanation is the traditional practice of eating rich foods like eggs and butter on that day so as to use up the household supply before the austere Lenten period of fasting. This is also why the day came to be known as Pancake Tuesday in some parts of England—pancakes being an ideal way to use up eggs and butter!
French Mardi comes from the Latin phrase Martis diēs “Mars’s day,” named after Mars, the planet and deity of the third day of the week according to Hellenistic astrology. Gras is problematic: it ultimately derives from Latin crassus “thick, stout, plump,” and one would therefore expect cras, but French has gras, Italian grasso, Spanish and Portuguese graso, all showing g-, not c-.
Mardi Gras is also called by yet another name, Shrove Tuesday, which is the last day of the three-day period known as Shrovetide. This was originally, and among some devout Christians still is, a time of confession in preparation for the solemn and holy season of Lent; shrove is the past tense of an old verb shrive, meaning "to make one’s confession to a priest" or "to hear someone’s confession and grant them absolution." But it became a time of merrymaking before the self-denial practiced during Lent—with Shrove Tuesday being a convenient opportunity to be absolved of the excesses and self-indulgence of the season!

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British Dictionary definitions for Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras

/ (ˈmɑːdɪ ˈɡrɑː) /


noun
  1. the festival of Shrove Tuesday, celebrated in some cities with great revelry

Origin of Mardi Gras

1
French: fat Tuesday

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras

[ (mahr-dee grah) ]


An annual festival held in France on the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Mardi Gras is French for “Fat Tuesday” — meaning it is the last opportunity to eat rich food before the fast of Lent begins. It is related to celebrations elsewhere, called “carnivals,” from the Latin words carne and vale, “meat” and “farewell,” meaning a farewell to meat before the abstinence of Lent.

Notes for Mardi Gras

New Orleans, Louisiana, is famous for its Mardi Gras celebration, as is Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.