On February 28th in cities across the nation, people celebrated Mardi Gras.
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The day after Mardi Gras social media feeds were clogged with people showing off crosses of ash on their foreheads. What does all this mean?
Mardi Gras is the last day before the Christian church’s season of lent.
Lent is the 40 days before Easter (46, really, but Sundays don’t count). It is a season of sacrifice, atonement and preparation for the Holy day of Easter. It is meant to mirror the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness before Jesus' earthly ministry began. Traditionally, people give up luxuries like social media or morning coffee to spend that extra time getting their hearts and minds right with God so they can be spiritually ready for the high Holy days of Easter.
Mardi Gras is the last day before Lenten fasts begin, so naturally it transformed into a huge party filled with pretty much every carnal desire you have.
The next day is Ash Wednesday, which is the day Christians go to church and take part in the impartation of ashes. The ashes, which are ash from the burning of palm branches from Palm Sunday the year before, are usually placed on the forehead in a cross by the priest with the words “remember you are dust and you will return” or “repent and believe in the gospel."
The ash idea comes from the Bible when people would be sad or be in a bad place and need to turn to God for help and they adorn their sack cloth and ashes. Today it is just an outward sign that you are repentant and ready to go through the season of Lent on the way to Easter.
The Sunday before Easter is Palm Sunday, the day that Jesus came into Jerusalem on a donkey where people waved palm branches and proclaimed him as Lord.
Just a few days later on Maundy Thursday is when we recognize the Last Supper of Christ with His Disciples; the last time they gathered for a Passover meal. That evening would be when Jesus went to the garden with two of his disciples and the night Judas betrayed Jesus.
Good Friday is a sad day, representing the day Christ was crucified and died.
Then on Sunday, the highest Holy day on the Christian calendar, is Easter. Easter is the day that the church celebrates the resurrection of Christ. Our pastor calls it the "Super Bowl" for Christians.
It is really easy to get caught up with the Easter baskets and spring festivities, but Easter is the season that commemorates the corner stone of the Christian Faith. Without the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, there would be no Christianity.
You may wonder why the dates we celebrate Lent and Easter are different every year. Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox. If the first full moon occurs on the equinox, Easter is the following Sunday. Thus, Easter can fall anywhere between March 22 and April 25. The Last Supper was the Jewish Passover Christians attempted to reconcile Jewish and Roman Calendars to get the dates to be the Sunday after Passover.
Well, there you have it...Easter and Lent in a nutshell. Even if you haven’t been to church in a while or never considered it, Easter is a great time to start on the right track. The church I attend is a laid back evangelical church, but on Easter Sunday there is a huge celebration with cancers, processing choirs and the normal skinny jeans and sport coat our pastor wears are traded in for a robe and priestly vestments. The point of Easter service around the world is simple: to celebrate our risen Lord for His sacrifice, because He rose so we can have new and eternal life with Him.
So, as you go through the grocery store and you see the chocolate rabbits and jelly beans, remember the true meaning for all the celebration.
