Those Catholics sure know how to Party!

It's Mardi Gras time!! Time for drinking, fighting, getting arrested, flashing breasts and general hedonism. Why? Because those Catholics are just so hard to control.

Um... What?

Ok, maybe it's not just the Catholics, but I like to pick on them because I know it bugs my buddy Marc. I'm sure now that I've put this on the Internet, the Pope's goons are gonna come find me and pummell me for 7 hours straight, but am I really the only one that see's the problem with the fact that Mardi Gras really came about by people's last 'hurrah' before starting lent?

Lent ( P ) (lnt) n. The 40 weekdays from Ash Wednesday until Easter observed by Christians as a season of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter.

Uh oh.. Now I'm stepping on toes. First, I'll start with the fact that this isn't celebrated by all Christians. Predominately, it's covered by Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, and Anglican denominations, by Roman Catholics, and by Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Hey, wait.. No one said Baptists. WHERE'S THE BAPTISTS?

Here I am. Never celebrated Lent, and really can't give you a compelling reason why I don't other than, mainstream Baptist churches like the one I was raised in gave up Lent somewhere around the 16th Century. It was determined that it was a holiday created by the Romans, and there's much debate on that.

Hmmm, so where does that leave me? Well, I tell you where it doesn't leave me. You won't find me in New Orleans or Galveston drinking away my liver, flashing my nads for beads and parading around in giant feather hats doing my best to look like a cross between Elton John and a giant Parrot on crack. My suggestion to you drunks who like to party on Mardi Gras... Go have your fun, but leave Christianity out of it. If it's a 'hurrah' you want, don't do it because you're about to embark on a 40 day religious journey to be closer to God. Just admit that you're doing it because you're raggidy, low-down, no good party animal. Don't be scared.

For those of you who are sincere about the 40 weekdays of Lent, do some research. I find few people who actually know the origins of Fat Tuesday and Lent and fewer people who actually relate the two.

-Gary