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featured dining guide story Advertorial Feature SPECIAL TO NORTHWEST ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE 42 What's up! February 23-29, 2020 What is Mardi Gras and why is it celebrated? M ardi Gras, French for "Fat Tuesday," is the perfect excuse to eat, drink and be merry. It falls on the Tuesday (this year on February 25) before Ash Wednesday, when the Christian season of Lent begins. It's famously celebrated in New Orleans, Lousiana (where it's a legal holiday), in Rio de Janeiro (where it's the culmination of a season called "Carnival") and in many countries around the world. It's a lively display of pageantry, food, festivals, and general merrymaking. Mardi Gras dates back centuries to the ancient Roman custom of indulging before a period of fasting. Parties, parades and feasting are just one way to celebrate before the period of fasting and repentance known as Lent in the Christian calendar. While some people embrace the Mardi Gras carnival atmosphere, others participate in Shrove Tuesday, which is a more sedate celebration. Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the ritual of shriving that Christians once adhered to. This tradition includes the confession of sins. But indulgence is part of both Mardi Gras and Shrove Tuesday traditions. During Lent, certain foods, which historically included meat, fish, fats, eggs, and milk-based foods, are given up. Traditionally, on Mardi Gras and the period leading up to it, families would feast on all the foods they would give up during Lent. Pancakes were popular items during this time because they are made from eggs, fats and milk. Although many people no longer abstain from all of these foods, the custom of filling up before giving foods up has remained. New Orleans is by far the most popular location in North America in which to celebrate Mardi Gras. According to history.com, the first American Mardi Gras took place on March 3, 1699, when French explorers Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Sieur de Bienville landed near present-day New Orleans, Louisiana. They held a small celebration, and named their landing spot Point du Mardi Gras. Today's Mardi Gras celebrations can be loud and lavish. For certain, they include lots of food and drink. In New Orleans, krewes, which are organizations of partiers, host Mardi Gras balls, ride floats in the Mardi Gras parade and toss beads and other items to fellow revelers. The tradition of throwing beads began in the 1880's, when a man dressed like Santa Claus started throwing them. Before that, krewes threw all sorts of items, including food and dirt. An estimated 25 million pounds of Mardi Gras items get tossed from the floats in New Orleans, not all of them beads. The Krewe of Tucks, for instance, ride on a giant toilet bowl float and toss monogrammed toilet paper, toilet-shaped sunglasses and mini- plungers to the crowd.