"Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die"

"Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die"

 

It's Mardi Gras, and, if this isn't the theme of today it should be. Today is a day to indulge, to over indulge, to gorge yourself, to "get fat" on all of the "fatty" foods and behaviors that you probably shouldn't be partaking of, but will anyway because tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, you "die" to all of that, and begin a 40 day stretch of fasting from all of the things that you are indulging in today.

It is perhaps one of the most bizarre "religious" holidays/festivals. I put religious in quotes, because a lot of what happens on Mardi Gras today is not what originally happened. It's always been a day of feasting and gorging, but traditionally it was strictly on food, sugary, fatty foods, hence the "Fat" part of Fat Tuesday. Today, feasting and gorging on food is still a huge part, but so is gorging on virtually any and every other behavior you can think of. And then tomorrow, for the religious, you mark your forehead with ash in mourning over your sinful nature...