Mardi Gras and beyond~!
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Fat Tuesday morning found me doing a big ol' Internet search on the origins of Carnival, and Lent. I have this informal armchair-anthropological theory that many of our religious taboos and customs surrounding food have to do with survival, and we dress them up with religion to convince people to not violate them. So, if oxen are more valuable alive than dead, eating cow (or meat in general) will become a taboo. Its not enough that you won't be able to plant because you've eaten what used to pull your wagon, and you don't get any more cheese... the gods will be really pissed at you and you'll reincarnate as a lesser being of some sort. If I were doing this in class, I'd pretty it up a bit, but you get the idea. Sure, people could eat oxen if there were a famine, but the oxen is still more valuable alive for a whole host of other reasons, and a beef-roast might satisfy in the short term, but won't be a long-term survival solution.
(And yes I'm aware of the connections of Carnival with Saturnalia, Lupercalia, and assorted other "wild time" reversal rituals...I'm just doing some additional pondering.)
I've always wondered, then, what could be this practical reason behind Carnival and Lent. In my imagined ancient times, about mid-February whatever food you had stored up for the winter, might be running thin, so why would there be a period of indulgence then?
One hint for me is in Shrove Tuesday, and to paraphrase what I've read every year that I do this, some things may be getting ready to 'go bad,' so you eat them now. Enter pancakes and donuts, however, depending upon where and when, you might not have eggs since egg-laying birds like chickens don't lay in the winter unless you have artificial lights. It makes MORE sense to me that maybe they have started laying, so now you can mix the eggs with the flour (which probably doesn't go bad) and have a bit of a treat? Maybe, maybe not. Meats would definitely have a shelf-life, and if the winter is starting to give way, eating some meats that have thawed, maybe, would be important. Be sure to eat all that up before there is more thaw and more chance of spoilage? Thus, you have only any dried stuff left (stone-age jerky anyone)?
Okay, so I'm not satisfied with that, so moving on to Lent and giving up meat entirely (sort of). Maybe there's just not much left, and the way to make sure some last until fresh protein starts arriving regularly (rabbits, milk, and eggs), you just make it a taboo to eat it so you don't piss off the gods in addition to aiding the starvation of your family. Christianity develops and grafts this custom into its own mythology, and tada! We get fish on Friday. (As society changes and the risk of starvation isn't quite as dire, the custom changes).
It is of course all a big thought experiment, and probably not even right :) As a pagan, who lives in 2026 with four grocery stores within a mile of my house, I can't even begin to think about what life was like when that wasn't the case. What to do? How to incorporate this "scarcity play?" I think the Carnival/Lent cycle can be useful, if we lift it out of Christianity. The idea of "ascetism" is not attractive to most Neopagans, but I don't know. Engaging in a discipline practice to attain spiritual goals sounds like it could be a worthwhile practice, even it's only for a short period, say, Imbolc to Ostara.
This year, then, on Fat Tuesday, I ignored all my dietary rules and ate whatever I wanted. I carbo-loaded ALL day. It was glorious!! Then today, and hopefully through to Ostara, I will focus on sticking to my diet as strictly as possible (paleo-lite I call it), and adding back in my yoga/meditation/exercise every day, or as many days as I can (I drastically overslept this morning). Kind of a reboot of a New Year's Resolution (which is especially significant as Mardi Gras/Ash Wednesday was also Lunar New Year).
What are your thoughts? Comment below!
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