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CHAPTER 1
MARDI GRAS / SHROVE TUESDAY
Introduction
Medieval Christians developed carnivals to celebrate with exuberance one last time before the rigorous Lenten fast. Although Lenten regulations varied with time and place, no meat, butter, eggs, milk, or cheese were generally allowed during the forty days. Meals might be restricted to one each day, and that one taken after sundown. In addition to fasting, Christians were permitted no weddings, dances, or festivals during Lent; the season was reserved for prayer and penance. So medieval Christians began to observe days of celebration, to hold rowdy parades, masquerades, and dances, and to fling themselves into festivity one last time before Lent. This is where the traditions of Mardi Gras, Carnival, and Shrove Tuesday have come from––each focusing on a different aspect of getting ready for Lent.
Festivity and Feasting
Such pre-Lenten festivities are still widely observed today, preserved in the gondola parades of Venice, the Mardi Gras floats of New Orleans, and the street parties of Rio de Janeiro that begin weeks before the start of Lent. The traditional rich foods that are part of these celebrations give Carnival days many colorful names, such as Butter Week, Fat Days, and Fat Tuesday. Such feasting developed in part to prepare body and spirit for the long fast and in part to use up the foods that could not be stored during Lent. Although popular etymology translates the word carnival as "Carnem, vale" (literally, "farewell, meat"), the word more likely comes from the Latin phrase carnem levare: "the removal of meat."
Doughnuts filled with raisins and apples were one of the first European carnival foods to become popular in America. These delicious cakes, brought by Dutch and German settlers, are still prepared by Pennsylvania Dutch families today. Another European household tradition was to use up all the milk, eggs, and fat by making pancakes, a meal that came to symbolize preparation for the discipline of Lent. More widely known are the pancakes eaten in several countries: English Shrove Tuesday pancakes, French crepes, and Russian blini.
Confession and Farewell
Another name for the pre-Lenten celebration, Shrove Tuesday, is derived from a different custom: that of confessing sins (being "shriven") in order to begin the spiritual battle of Lent renewed by an awareness of God's power and mercy.
Such a time of confession carries with it a spirit of sorrow and contrition over sin. For this reason, the word alleluia is omitted from Lenten liturgies and restored again during the celebrations of Easter. A Mardi Gras celebration provides an excellent opportunity to bid farewell to this joyous word.
Both confession and festival are still excellent ways to prepare for Lent. Perhaps we, too, can find in confession a renewal of joy in God's forgiveness. Maybe we can find in festival a renewal of foolishness and fun with our Christian family. We can also prepare ourselves to take Lent more seriously by giving ourselves permission to feast and play beforehand. We can possibly plunge gaily into Carnival, to emerge prepared for a holy Lent.
Ideas for Your Celebration
There are many options for structuring your celebration. You may choose to make it more of a Mardi Gras, complete with masks, costumes, and the Costume Scavenger Hunt on page 15. Or you might wish to focus on the Shrove Tuesday theme by cooking pancakes and having pancake races, including the Farewell to Alleluia service to end on a more reflective note on page 25.
Want to reach out beyond your church or home for this celebration? Here are several options:
• Advertise the event in the neighborhood. If you include activities that require advance preparation, like the Costume Scavenger Hunt and the Treats Parade, make sure your publicity and invitations mention these as well.
• Invite participants to bring some of the recipes included in this chapter. Or ask them to bring an item of "rich and delicious" carnival-type food, such as donuts, fancy cookies, or pastries for distribution to area shelters or food pantries. For the poor, many of their daily meals are meager and austere. A special treat would be welcomed. Check with your church's social concerns committee or an area shelter or food pantry to see what would be appreciated.
• Mardi Gras is rich in food traditions. Consider staging the Mardi Gras celebration at a local homeless shelter or food kitchen. A "Mardi Gras Pancake Supper" could be prepared for the evening meal.
WORSHIP
Opening Prayer
Sing together a favorite hymn that includes the phrase "Alleluia!"
Examples include the following, but your denomination or church may have its own favorites:
• "Alleluia, Alleluia! Give Thanks to the Risen Lord" (The Hymnal 1982, #178)
• "Alleluia! Sing to Jesus" (The Hymnal 1982, #460, #461; Evangelical Lutheran Worship, #392)
• "Christ Has Arisen" (Lift Every Voice and Sing II, #41)
• "In Thee Is Gladness" (Evangelical Lutheran Worship, #867)
• "Sing Alleluia Forth in Duteous Praise" (The Hymnal 1982, #619)
• "Thankful Hearts and Voices Raise" (With One Voice, #623)
• "Voices Raised to You" (Evangelical Lutheran Worship, #845)
• "When in Our Music God Is Glorified" (The Hymnal 1982, #420)
CRAFTS
Mardi Gras Masks
As participants arrive for the celebration, invite them to make their own mask to wear throughout the event.
Materials
• plain, plastic masks (available at party and craft stores or online)
• glue
• scissors
• feathers, sequins, tissue paper, etc. for decorating masks
• optional: prize(s)
Directions
1. Set up a large table (or several smaller tables) with masks and materials for decorating masks.
2. Consider giving a prize for the most festive mask.
Alleluia Poster
Invite everyone to make and decorate a community or family Alleluia Poster. If you choose to use fabric or felt instead, a banner could be made following the same directions. When completed, put it on display until you choose to use it in the Farewell to Alleluia Service (p. 25).
Materials
• 28" x 40" poster board
• scissors
• assorted papers: tissue, construction, colored foil, etc.
• glue
• felt pens
• assorted decorations: dried flowers, sequins, glitter, ribbons, yarn, pompoms, feathers, etc.
Directions
1. Ask eight participants to write (or cut out letters for) the word alleluia, each participant writing one letter. The word should be centered on the poster.
2. Letters can be cut from paper and glued to the poster board, outlined in felt pen and filled with a glued collage material such as sequins, or drawn with felt pens alone.
3. Ask other participants to create a decorative border, 4"–6" wide, around the edge of the poster board. This border can combine drawings with such decorations as flowers, glitter, ribbons, etc.
MUSIC
Make Some Noise!
Set up activity centers where participants can make a variety of simple noisemakers. Have each center supervised by a youth or adult volunteer. Only allow the use of scissors and other sharp tools as appropriate and with supervision. At the end of this activity is a game that small children may enjoy with the instruments that have been made.
Cymbals
Materials
• pairs of pot lids
Directions
1. Bang two pot lids together like cymbals.
Rasp
Materials
• metal thimbles
• metal cheese graters
Directions
1. Put one or more thimbles on the fingers of one hand.
2. Use the thimbles to rasp a metal cheese grater held in the other hand.
Humming Combs
Materials
• plastic combs
• waxed paper
Directions
1. Fold a piece of waxed paper in half.
2. Place the comb inside the paper so that the tines touch the fold.
3. Hold the comb to your lips and hum.
Cardboard Kazoo
Materials
• cardboard tubes
• waxed paper
• scissors
• rubber bands
• optional:
• construction paper or tissue paper in various colors
• scissors
• crayons or felt markers
• crepe paper streamers
• glue
• sequins or glitter
Directions
1. Cut a 4" square of waxed paper and fit it over the end of a cardboard tube. Secure the waxed paper with a rubber band. Hum into the open end of the tube.
2. If desired, decorate kazoos with construction or tissue paper, crayons or felt markers, crepe paper streamers, glue, and sequins or glitter.
3. Younger participants may be given the responsibility for decorating the instruments as the adults make them.
Box Rattles
Materials
• empty cardboard oatmeal boxes with covers
• small noise-making materials, such as rice, beans, pebbles, etc.
• masking tape
• optional:
• construction paper or tissue paper in various colors
• scissors
• crayons or felt markers
• crepe paper streamers
• glue
• sequins or glitter
Directions
1. Fill an empty oatmeal box with a handful of rice, beans, pebbles, etc.
2. Cover the box and secure it with a strip of masking tape.
3. If desired, decorate rattles with construction or tissue paper, crayons or felt markers, crepe paper streamers, glue and sequins or glitter.
4. Younger participants may be given the responsibility for decorating the instruments as the adults make them.
Bell Circles
Materials
• scissors or pocket knife
• plastic lids (such as those used on coffee cans)
• pipe cleaners, 4 per lid
• inexpensive bells for sewing, 4 per lid
Directions
1. Use the scissors or pocketknife to punch four holes in a plastic lid.
2. Use the pipe cleaners to attach one bell to each hole.
Alleluia Sing
Before the session, arrange with one or more musicians to lead the participants in a hymn sing.
At the session invite participants to sing favorite hymns with alleluia one last time before Lent. Hymns could include traditional folk songs, such as "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore," or traditional or contemporary hymns from your congregation's hymnal. See the suggestions made on page 4 for today's Opening Prayer.
The hymn sing could appropriately be concluded by singing, "Alleluia, Song of Gladness." This is the traditional pre-Lenten hymn of farewell to alleluia. If you have trouble locating it, you'll find it here online:
• www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/a/s/asonglad.htm
• http://hymnary.org/text/alleluia_song_of_gladness_voice_of_joy_t
Materials
• hymnals
• musical instrument(s)
DRAMA
Carnival Face Painting
Set up a center where participants can paint their faces with makeup. Encourage older participants to offer help to younger participants, or have a few artistic adults assigned to help with the younger children.
Materials
• cold cream
• face-painting makeup or greasepaint crayons
• sponges/brushes
• tissues
• mirrors
• optional: white zinc oxide salve
Note: Greasepaint crayons are inexpensive and effective make-up tools. Face-painting kits that include instructions and designs are also available. Look for them at a toy, costume, or craft store (or online).
Directions
1. Begin with a thin layer of cold cream to protect the skin and to simplify makeup removal. If desired, use zinc oxide salve to make a white base for a clown face.
2. Clown makeup uses bright colors and bold shapes to emphasize an actual facial expression or emotion. A happy face might be indicated by broad red lines drawn around the lips, bright triangles of color on the cheeks, and black, arching lines over the eyebrows. You may prefer to make an animal face, complete with whiskers. Another option is to use abstract designs and patterns to create as beautiful or frightening or mysterious a face as you want.
An online search will also uncover examples and patterns, including this site:
www.face-painting-fun.com
Costume Charades
Materials
• box or bag
• fabric in various colors
• towels
• masks
• safety pins
• cardboard tubes
• sticks
• hats
• rope/string
• toy tools
• other costume items
Note: Pre-school and kindergarten children probably will not be able to guess words with much success, but younger children can still enjoy the game if they are given parts to act out and are allowed to guess freely.
Directions
1. Divide participants into several teams. One team is designated the acting team and the other teams are designated guessing teams.
2. The acting team leaves the room and picks a word to act out. The word should have three or four syllables, such as marketplace.
3. The acting team should devise skits to portray each syllable, plus a final skit to portray the whole word. Marketplace would need four skits: one for mark, one for cat, one for place, and one for marketplace. The acting team may use the box of items to improvise simple costumes.
4. One member of the acting team must announce each skit saying, for example, "first syllable," "second syllable," or "whole word" as a team performs it.
5. Each guessing team should confer quietly between skits, trying to guess the acted syllable or word. When all the skits have been completed, each guessing team should decide on one guess. The guessing team that answers correctly, or comes closest to answering correctly, becomes the next acting team.
Costume Stories
Materials
• shopping bags
• fabric in various colors
• towels
• masks
• safety pins
• cardboard tubes
• sticks
• hats
• rope or string
• toy tools
• other costume items
• 3" x 5" index cards
• pens or pencils
• basket
Directions
1. In advance, fill six shopping bags with items for improvising costumes. Make sure each bag has a diverse collection of items.
2. As you begin this activity, distribute the index cards. Ask each participant to write the name of an animal or the title of a human profession or job on the card. Collect the cards in the basket.
3. Divide participants into six teams. Pass around the basket and ask each participant to take one card. Each participant will play the part written on the index card in a short skit.
4. Give each team a shopping bag with costume items. Allow ten minutes for each team to devise a skit, incorporating the roles of that team's participants. Allow another five minutes for each team to improvise costumes for its members from the items in the team's shopping bag. Have the teams take turns presenting the skits.
GAMES
Pancake Relay Race
Many countries have pancake races and games on Shrove Tuesday, but hot pancakes and skillets are unsafe for young children. Use cold pancakes and paper plates, or plastic "pancakes" (plastic coffee can lids) as substitutes.
Materials
• pancakes (or Frisbees® or plastic coffee can lids), 1 per team
• paper or plastic dinner plates, 1 per team
Directions
1. Divide the participants into relay teams, with 6–8 participants on each team. Give the starting participant from each team a "pancake" and a paper or plastic dinner plate.
2. Have each starting participant, with a "pancake" on the plate, run to a finish line and then back to the team. Have the participants use their plates to flip the "pancakes" as they run. Set a minimum number of flips — perhaps six on the way to the turning point and six on the return trip.
3. As each participant returns to the team, he or she should hand the "pancake" and plate to the next participant. The first team to have all of its members complete the trip wins the relay.
Costume Scavenger Hunt
This activity requires that participants come to your event in costume. Notify them in advance if you include this activity.
Materials
• copies of the Costume Scavenger Hunt List (p. 16) or download at www.churchpublishing.org/faithfulcelebrations1
• pens or pencils
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Faithful Celebrations"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Sharon Ely Pearson.
Excerpted by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated.
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