Today is Mardi Gras and the day before Ash Wednesday. It is for this reason that Mardi Gras is a day for going batshit insane. For kids, it's the day you dress up in a costume and throw paper confetti and silly string all over the place (see? we have a kind of Halloween too). For teenagers, it's a day to pull pranks on your friends and egg a few people. For adults, it's a day to throw a very decadent (and often a raunchy sex) party and get smashed. For everyone it's a day to eat as much shit as you want, because tomorrow is supposedly the first day of lent and so all this decadence will not be allowed. I of course will not be participating in lent this year, but as I said before, I'll take a holiday as an excuse to do something fun any day. I didn't get an invitation to an exclusive Venetian party, but I'm sure I'll find something to do tonight.
By living in Dublin for 5 years I actually missed Carnevale/Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras every year, because I never knew what fucking day it was on until it was all over. I know it's 40 days before Easter, but how the hell am I supposed to know when that is either? Have you ever wondered why Easter changes every freaking year, and how the hell they decide when it's going to be, and why is the Orthodox Easter different than the Catholic one, and who the fuck can keep up?! Well, have yourselves a little history/theology lesson, on me:
Apparently, Easter Sunday falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox, or March 21st. Phew! The reason the Orthodox Church has a different Easter Sunday is because they use the Julian Calendar when calculating their dates, instead of the Gregorian Calendar that we all know and love.
Sounds weirdly arbitrary doesn't it? Not to mention a little pagan? Bah who cares, it's not like anything these institutions do or believe makes any sense anymore...
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