Fat Tuesday and Skinny Wednesday “What’s the difference between
a flute and a stick in the mud?” our priest asked on Sunday. He
then went on, “The stick in the mud is full of itself. The flute
has been emptied of itself so it can make music.” That’s a good
image for Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. The origins of Fat
Tuesday have everything to do with what happens on day after.
Christians around the world celebrate “Ash Wednesday” which
kicks off the 40 days before Easter (what we call “Lent”).
Traditionally Lent is a season of fasting (giving up food or
luxuries or vices) and repentance (which means “to re-think”
things), and we put ashes on our heads made from palm branches
from the previous Easter season as a sign of our mortality (i.e.
“from dust we came and to dust we shall return”). So before the
fasting there was feasting. Ages ago, folks would spend Tuesday
eating up all the grub (and drinks) that would go bad during the
season of fasting, especially in the days before refrigeration.
But the question su