Shrove Tuesday is about beginnings and endings. In England, the word shrove (Old English scraf - confession) comes from the Christian custom of making confession of sin and receiving forgiveness, being shriven, on that day. As the day before Ash Wednesday, it marks the day of preparation for the beginning of Lent, a season of fasting and prayer. Shrove Tuesday also marks the end of Carnival (Latin carne - meat vale - farewell) or a period of general merrymaking (usually the three days before Lent) including Fastnacht in Germany and Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) in France and New Orleans, Louisiana where other terms and traditions have been added.

Leaving aside the general disconnect in the mainstream-Christian mind between forgiveness of sins and "Christ our Passover" -- isn't the custom of Carnival followed by Lent (certainly as generally observed now) rather like the old joke about sowing one's wild oats on Saturday night and coming to church on Sunday morning to pray for crop failure?

One does need to "examine himself" before taking the New Testament Passover (cf. the last half of 1 Corinthians 11), and this is something we emphasize this time of year (as part of a broader context). But the idea -- to say more gently what might be said more pointedly -- is exactly the opposite of "eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow...is Lent."

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