Being out and about this week, I was oblivious to two significant events going on in the Christian world. As a result of going to Galveston to take care of some Feast of Tabernacles business, I became aware that Tuesday, February 17, 2015 was a big day for both Christians and non-Christians. Galveston was in the midst Mardi Gras festivities.
I was reminded of the second significant Christian observance when I came into contact with individuals who had a cross marked on their foreheads with black ashes. This cross on the forehead marked Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.
For many, the words Mardi Gras conjure up all sorts of images in our minds. We think of parades, floats, masquerades, balls, beads, doubloons, parties, king cake and revelry. New Orleans promotes it as “the greatest free show on earth”, and it is considered by most to be a good wholesome time of frolicking and fun.
Most people think that Mardi Gras came to us from the French, and that its history dates back only a century or so (The first “REX” parade in New Orleans was held in 1872). There are also accounts of some sort of Mardi Gras celebrations dating back to the early 1700’s (though those celebrations were little more than drunken brawls).
In actuality, the Mardi Gras celebration originated in the pagan pre-Christian celebrations of spring. Ancient Greeks would sacrifice a goat, cut its hide into strips and run naked through the fields while their pagan priests lashed them with the goat-hide strips. This was a part of their spring fertility rite to insure a productive harvest for their fields and increase the fertility of their flocks and women. The custom was degenerate, even by pagan standards, being a time of lewdness, immorality, drunkenness and revelry and was associated with the worship of the Greek god “Pan”.
“Pan”, besides being the Greek god of fields and pastures, was even more closely associated with cattle, flocks and herds than with agriculture. He was a fertility god and therefore always represented as crude, wanton, and lustful. He took the form of half goat and half man, having the legs, ears, and horns of a goat (the goat is the ancient symbol of Satan), but the torso, arms and face of a man.
The Romans, also thoroughly enjoyed this Greek festival. It was held each year in Rome during mid-February.
One writer says of this predecessor to our modern Mardi Gras: “It became known as “Lupercalia”, after the grotto on the Palatine hill where the festivals of the god PAN were held. The Roman aristocracy of the time preferred debauchery and licentiousness to legality and morality. Men donned women’s clothing, the better to abandon themselves to orgy; thus the masquerade tradition began.” (Errol Laborde, MARDI GRAS! Picayune Press, N.O.LA. p.33).
Another writes: “Most scholars see a relationship between present day Mardi Gras and the ancient tribal rituals of fertility that welcomed the arrival of spring. A possible ancestor of the celebration is the Lupercalis, a circus-like orgy held in mid-February in Rome.” (Arthur Hardy, NEW ORLEANS MARDI GRAS GUIDE, 1982 ed. p.9).
Obviously, the celebration was totally licentious. Though it is mistakenly believed that our present Mardi Gras celebration is of more recent descent, sociologists and historians trace the present celebration directly to these obscene pagan spring fertility rites. Of course, most of the elements attending the ancient pagan celebration: (i.e., the drunkenness, lewdness, men-masquerading-as-women, obscenity, nudity, etc.,) have survived and are still very much a part of the present Mardi Gras celebration.
Mardi Gras is the last chance for Christians to eat, drink, and revel before Lent begins with Ash Wednesday and the marking of the forehead. With the beginning of the Lenten season Christians are to fast (abstain from chosen item) for forty days.
It is hard to believe that a festive occasion characterized by eating, drinking, and debauchery can be considered Christian, but in a world under Satan’s sway it is not a problem.
What were your thoughts on Tuesday and Wednesday? Were they upon Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday?
Or were your thoughts upon those things that are biblical? More specifically, have we begun to think of the Passover? Have we begin to focus upon examining ourselves in order to be prepared to renew our covenant in the Passover ceremony described in 1 Corinthians 11 and John 13?
We are blessed to be able to know the truths of the Bible concerning the Passover and the Days of Unleavened. God’s festival plan will begin to unfold in just a few weeks. The coming festivals give us significant things to consider in the weeks ahead.
Perhaps we can use the Sabbath as time to study and consider the magnitude of the sacrifice of our Savior and be renewed in our commitment to God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
Gary Smith
