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| Ragù Napoletano, my family's traditional Fat Tuesday dinner |
The celebration of Carnevale (Latin for “farewell to flesh”) concludes on Martedì Grasso, or Fat Tuesday. In anticipation of the austerity of Lent, revelers partake in final indulgences before fasting and penitence. In Southern Italy the day is typically marked with parades, fireworks and plenty of merrymaking. Large meals consisting of local delicacies, meat and other items eschewed during Lent are greedily enjoyed one last time before the fast. In Naples, the festivities traditionally culminate with the ritual “death” of Carnevale ('A morte 'e Carnevale). Laid out to rest on a decorated funeral bier, a straw effigy personifying the dissolute season is drawn in procession through the crowded streets. Between laments, laughter and revelries, the figure of the self-indulgent Carnevale is immolated and reduced to ashes on a funeral pyre, singling the end of the festive period. In celebration, I’m posting a prayer for Shrove Tuesday.Shrove Tuesday Prayer
Lord, give us grace to inaugurate with holy fasting the defenses of Christian warfare, so that we who are to fight against spiritual wickedness, may be helped and strengthened by self-denial.
