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Shrove Monday/Güdismontag

This year, Shrove Monday will be observed on February 20. The day, also known as “Collop Monday”, “Rose Monday”, “Merry Monday”, or “Hall Monday,” is an annual Christian holiday that is observed on the Monday before Ash Wednesday. The day is celebrated with carnival parades and floats that often satirize a culture’s habits or people, national and international public figures, recent events, and taboo subjects. Marching bands and local associations are also a part of these parades. The parades are visited by spectators and some may even receive media coverage. Spectators at the parade also dress as mythical or political figures, thus adding to the merriment of the day.

History of Shrove Monday

The origins of Shrove Monday are not entirely clear. However, the traditions around the carnival and parades may have begun over two thousand years ago by the Romans. In these carnivals, it wasn’t uncommon to see the servants and slaves playing the role of masters and dressing up like them. Fast forward to today, the tradition continues with people dressing up as local and international public figures while satirizing them.

Shrove Monday also signals the end of the period before ‘Lent’ for many Christians. Until Easter, Christians observe a period called Lent. Some might even choose to fast or spend more time praying during the Shrovetide week. Several Christians give up meat, sugar, eggs, and alcohol during this period. The fast or abstinence is broken by consuming these food products during the carnivals.

The day is sometimes called “Collopy Monday” in the U.K. owing to a traditional meal eaten for breakfast on the day — collops of bacon eaten with an egg. Whereas in east Cornwall, Shrove Monday is known as “Paisen Monday” or “Peasen Monday”, in honor of the pea soup that is eaten on this day. Shrove Monday is a popular holiday in numerous countries. It is part of the Carnival calendar in Greece, and in many Caribbean countries, it is known as “Carnival Monday” — thus starting the Carnival season. In the Americas, Shrove Monday is more popular as “Luni Gras” or “Fat Monday”. In Lucerne it's called "Güdismontag". Güdis is an old word for stomach and Montag is Monday. It's the last Monday to fill your stomach with all the good eats before the Lent starts on Wednesday.

It appears that almost every culture has its version of Shrove Monday!

Shrove Monday timeline

12th Century The Royal Shrovetide Football Match

Henry II starts the trend of an annual traditional football match that is different from modern-day football.

19th Century The Celebrations in the Caribbean

Trinidad and Tobago Carnivals first celebrate Shrove Monday in the Caribbean.

19th Century The Mississippi Gulf Coast Mardi Gras

Carnival celebrations to mark Shrove Monday begins in Mississippi, U.S.

20th Century The New Name

Mississippi Gulf Coast Mardi Gras is renamed Lundi Gras or Fat Monday.

Shrove Monday FAQs

What does Shrove Monday celebrate?

Shrove Monday is celebrated before Ash Wednesday and signals people to start preparing for the season of Lent.

Is Shrove Monday a holiday in Germany?

Shrove Monday is not a public holiday in Germany.

Where is Shrove Monday celebrated?

Shrove Monday is celebrated in Europe, the Americas, and even the Caribbeans.

How to Observe Shrove Monday

Feast on collop and eggs

Attend a carnival

Start preparing for Lent

Start Shrove Monday by feasting on the traditional meal of collop and eggs. A collop of bacon may be eaten with beans and vegetables to add more flavor to the dish. This is the best way to start the celebrations!

Find out if there are any carnivals on Shrove Monday located close to your area. You may even dress up in costumes or participate in the festivities as a spectator. Shrove Monday carnivals are a stunning sight.

After you are done celebrating Shrove Monday, you could start preparing for Lent. Devout Christians prepare for Lent by confessing, fasting, giving up certain food items, and praying more.

5 Intriguing Facts About Shrove Monday

It’s always on a Monday

The name comes from the word ‘shriving’

Carnivals and Shrove Mondays are synonymous

‘Collop’ doesn’t always mean bacon

It also marks the start of spring

More precisely, Shrove Monday is always celebrated 48 days before Easter.

The old word ‘Shriving’ means to listen to someone’s sins and forgive them.

Some of the world’s largest and most famous carnival celebrations take place in New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro, and Venice.

Any fatty piece of meat may be referred to as ‘collop’ and consumed on Shrove Monday.

Shrove Monday marks the beginning of Spring in the Greek Orthodox calendar.

Why Shrove Monday is Important

Celebration of age-old traditions

A time of merry-making

A celebration of rare foods

Shrove Monday is celebrated with The Royal Shrovetide Football Match dating back to the 12th Century. Ancient traditions like these make Shrove Monday an important historical observation while keeping old traditions alive.

Shrove Monday is celebrated with carnivals, parades, and floats. People dress up, indulge in satire, and drink and eat to celebrate. Shrove Monday is a perfect holiday to spend some fun times with your loved ones.

Shrove Monday, in a way, also celebrates foods that are increasingly becoming rare. Also known as Collop Monday and Peasen Monday, this is a good opportunity to celebrate collop bacon and eggs, and pea soup.

Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday/Güdisdienstag

In French, Mardi means Tuesday, and gras means fat, so it makes sense that Mardi Gras is often called Fat Tuesday. It is also called Carnival or Carnaval—a name that is also used to refer to the whole period between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday—as well as various other names in different countries. It takes place on the day before Ash Wednesday—when Lent begins—although, in many places where it is widely celebrated, it is a week-long festival. Mardi Gras is held all around the world, particularly in cities with large Roman Catholic populations. Its epicenter is New Orleans, where most non-essential businesses are shut down and locals and pilgrims come together for parades, music, food, and drink. Revelers wear costumes, dress in purple, gold, and green, and wear beads they catch at parades. Large Mardi Gras festivals are also held in Brazil and Venice, and celebrations of the holiday commonly take place in Mississippi, Alabama, Canada, Germany, and Denmark.

Although Mardi Gras is a Christian holiday, it is generally believed to have roots in pagan celebrations of spring and fertility like Saturnalia and Lupercalia. (Although, some experts dispute that there are pagan roots and say it sprang up in response to the Catholic Church's stringent rules during Lent.) Upon Christianity's arrival in Rome, the religion blended with pagan traditions, and so began a time of debauchery preceding the 40 days of fasting between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. In the lead-up to Lent, Christians made sure to eat all the rich and fatty foods in their house, like lard, milk, eggs, cheese, and meat. As Christianity spread to other European countries, so did these traditions.

The origins of Mardi Gras as we know it today are in the parties of the seventeenth and eighteenth-century Rome and Venice. From there, the parties spread to France, where the French House of the Bourbons celebrated Boeuf Gras—"Fatted Calf." The French then brought the celebrations to their colonies and the New World. On March 2, 1699, two French-Canadian explorers and brothers, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville and Pierre Le Moyne d-Iberville arrived 60 miles south of present-day New Orleans, on the eve of when the holiday was held, and named the spot "Pointe du Mardi Gras." This is viewed by some as the first Mardi Gras in America. Others say that the first Mardi Gras in America was celebrated in 1703, at "Fort Louis de la Louisiane," where the settlement La Mobile was located. The brothers had a hand in the creation of the fort and settlement the year prior—the settlement is now the location of the community of Le Moyne, which is north of present-day Mobile.

Bienville established New Orleans in 1718. Mardi Gras was celebrated there then, and more publicly so by the 1730s, although not with the parades that would later become associated with it. Louisiana's governor created society balls in the early 1740s, which became a model for the New Orleans Mardi Gras balls. Thus, Mardi Gras at the time was defined by masked balls, street parties, and dinners. When the Spanish took control of New Orleans in 1762, these practices were banned. France took control of the area at the turn of the century, and the United States acquired the area in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase. The bans on Mardi Gras festivities weren't removed until Louisiana became a state in 1812.

The first official Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans is recorded as taking place in 1837. These street processions had carriages and horses with masked riders. Gaslight torches called "flambeaux" lit the way. In 1856, an anonymous group joined together to form the Mistick Krewe of Comus. They ushered in a new era of Mardi Gras in New Orleans the following year when they organized a masked ball and a parade called The Demon Actors in Milton's Paradise Lost, which had marching bands and rolling floats called tableaux cars. This helped to establish the city as the center of the holiday in the United States and to increase the popularity of the festival in general.

A second Mardi Gras krewe, Twelfth Night Revelers, was formed in 1870. Then, in 1872, Rex, another krewe, which is known as the "King of Carnival," came on the scene. They presided over the first daytime parade of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. They also designated purple, green, and gold to be the official colors of the festival, in honor of Russian Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, who had those family colors and was visiting at the time. The colors remained the colors of Mardi Gras in the years after. Many more krewes have been started since the original ones. The early krewes were white and male-only krewes, so women and Blacks created their own, like Les Mysterieuses and the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club. An ordinance was passed in 1992 that said krewes couldn't parade unless they integrated. Some krewes still refused to integrate into the twenty-first century, and thus, weren't able to march.

Louisiana's Governor Warmouth signed the Mardi Gras Act in 1875, which made Mardi Gras a legal holiday in Louisiana. It is the only state where Mardi Gras is a legal holiday today, although it is celebrated in other parts of the country, particularly in Alabama and Mississippi. Mardi Gras has stood the test of time and many of its customs from centuries ago remain. Floats are decorated and parades are held. Beads and trinkets are thrown. Festive masks are worn. King cake is eaten and alcohol is imbibed. While New Orleans is its home, it can be celebrated anywhere, and we celebrate it today!

How to Observe Mardi Gras

There are many ways you could partake in Mardi Gras!

Travel to Lucerne and celebrate the last day of carnival like nowhere else in the world! Enjoy the Monstercorso in the evening and dance the night away in the streets of the old town.

Travel to New Orleans and take part in the many festivities there. Dress up, attend a parade, eat some of the city's most iconic foods at its best restaurants, and have some drinks at its best bars.

Travel to another location that is known for its Mardi Gras celebrations, such as Venice.

Eat fatty foods made with lard, milk, eggs, cheese, and meat. Make and eat foods associated with New Orleans and Mardi Gras, such as king cake.

Listen to some musical artists associated with Mardi Gras, New Orleans, or Louisiana, such as Louis Armstrong, Clifton Chenier, Professor Longhair, Dr. John, Jelly Roll Morton, and Allen Toussaint; listen to some of the most popular Mardi Gras songs; and learn more about the music associated with Mardi Gras.

Host a Mardi Gras party.

Read a book about Mardi Gras.

Fat Thursday/Schmutziger Donnerstag

Taking place on the last Thursday before Ash Wednesday, which begins Lent, Fat Thursday is a Christian feast that is primarily celebrated in European countries. It is similar to Fat Tuesday, which is celebrated the following week, but in many European countries, it is the more important holiday of the two. It also is associated with Carnival. As much fasting is done during Lent, Fat Thursday is a day for getting together and eating sweets and other foods that are eschewed during that season. Commonly eaten foods include pączki, berliners, and angel wings.

The holiday is given different names in various European countries, where distinct foods are associated with the day. The day appears to be most widely celebrated in Poland, where it is known as Tłusty Czwartek. Pastries and doughnuts from bakeries are eaten, especially pączki. The tradition of eating doughnuts on the day began in the seventeenth century. In parts of Germany, it is known as Weiberfastnacht. People wear costumes, and celebrations in the streets and in pubs begin at 11:11 a.m. It is known as the “women’s carnival” and there is a tradition of women “taking over” town halls. In some parts of Germany, the holiday is also known as Fetter Donnerstag.

Fat Thursday is known as Tsiknopempti in Greece, which roughly translates to “Thursday of the Smoke of Grilled Meat.” Being one of the last times that celebrants can eat meat before Lent, many Greeks grill meat such as souvlaki, and many cities set up grills in central squares and hold celebrations there. In Italy, the holiday is known as Giovedì Grasso, and in Sweden, it is known as Fettisdagen.

In some parts of Spain, it is known as Jueves Lardero. Bizcochos and a pastry called a mona are commonly eaten in the city of Albacete, and in the area of Aragon a special sausage is eaten. The holiday is called Dijous Gras in the region of Catalonia, and marked by eating bunyols and botifarra d'ou.

How to Observe

Regardless if you are planning on observing Lent in the following weeks, you can celebrate Fat Thursday today. It is best celebrated by indulging in large amounts of foods that aren’t very healthy, such as sweets, as well as by eating meat, which many abstain from during Lent. If you are in the United States, you could go to an ethnic bakery or grocery store to pick up some foods that are eaten on the day in European countries. Some foods you could enjoy today include pączki, berliners, angel wings, souvlaki, bizcochos, bunyols, and botifarra d'ou. If you are in a country such as Spain, Germany, or Poland, it shouldn’t be too hard to find celebrations to attend.

Commission I did for http://dandrpodcast.com/ to be included in their Adventurer’s Guide to Theria! The fearsome GREND!!

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Probably no posts tomorrow and the day after tomorrow due to the Lozärner Fasnacht (Lucerne’s Carnival).