Brazil, Italy, New Orleans and beyond · February 17, 2026

Carnival (Mardi Gras)

The Tuesday before Lent — the last feast before forty days of fasting.

What happened

Carnival is the season before Lent and Mardi Gras — "fat Tuesday" — is its last day. The name probably comes from carne levare, "to put away meat". The logic is simple and domestic: the eggs, fat and sugar in the house had to be used up before the fast, which is why so many countries eat pancakes or doughnuts on the same day under different names.

Why it stuck

A holiday that exists because of what comes next. The feast and the fast are one shape, not two.

What a family can do

Pancakes. Then ask what the house is giving up for the next six weeks.

Questions to work through

1. Work out the date yourself: find Easter, count back 47 days.
2. Pancakes in England, king cake in New Orleans, doughnuts in Poland. What do all three have in common?
3. Why would a feast be scheduled right before a fast, rather than after?