mardi gras

Proper noun capitalized: Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras

1. The day when traditionally all fat and meat in the house were finished up, before Christians were banned from eating them during Lent, which commenced the following day on Ash Wednesday.
   • Mardi-gras was ushered in with various ceremonies, offering a strange mixture of devotion and profaneness.1839, Marguerite Blessington, The idler in Italy, Henry Colburn, page 299
   • Dancing, fiddling, and feasting at Christmas and on Mardi-gras, before Lent, and feasting at or after Easter, are among their amusements or indulgences.1847, John Macgregor, The Progress of America: From the Discovery by Columbus to the Year 1846, Whittaker & Co., page 88

   Synonyms:

   Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day, Pancake Tuesday

2. The last day of a carnival, traditionally the celebration immediately before the start of Lent when joy would be out of place for Christians.
   • "Masks!" exclaimed I; "why, it isn't carnival time, is it?" "To be sure 'tis," replied he, "dis is Mardi gras, de gayest of de gay days. Noting but pleasure, and fun, and hosh-posh."1823, Thomas Tryatall, The Parisian Carnival, read in The New Monthly Magazine, and Literary Journal, Oliver Everett, p. 90
   • Every body knows what an important epoch Mardi Gras forms in the annual enjoyments of the French. It is the last day of the carnival gaieties, and that which precedes the gloominess of Lent.1825, Thomas Colley Grattan, The Vouée au Blanc read in High-Ways and By-Ways, or, Tales of the Roadside: Picked Up in the French Provinces by a Walking Gentleman: Second Series: Volume III, Henry...
3. A carnival.
   • Mardi Gras has been in operation here for the past two weeks, and on Monday last the Trudor sports should have commenced.1868, Charles Swett, A Trip to British Honduras, and to San Pedro, Republic of Honduras, Dollar Price, page 70
   • SYDNEY GAY & LESBIAN MARDI GRAS Not just a famously spectacular parade and an all-night dance party in Oxford Street, this is a month-long festival in February that also features theatre, art, photography and music in a celebration of gay and lesbian life.2007, Paul Smitz, Berry Blake, Australian Language & Culture, Lonely Planet, →ISBN, page 101