Hey everybody! Carnival has come! According to the Religious Calendar (by Roman Rites) it starts on the Septuagesima Sunday (the Sunday nearly 70 days before Easter: this year it has fallen on January, 24th) leading up to the Septuagesima Season or Carnival Season which ends on Shrove Tuesday (aka the British Pancake Day) or Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), this year falling on February, 9th, after which Lent begins (it deals with the 40-day penitential period when Christians are giving up eating meat - symbolically, the Jesus' flesh - during the weekdays till the Maundy/Holy Thursday, when His disciples ate the Last Supper, which precedes the Good Friday, when Jesus Christ was crucified - this is why, the strict Fast Day is related to the Lenten Fridays; against this backdrop, Carnival stands for the preparation for the Atonement).
Nevertheless, one usually considers it begins on the Thursday before Lent (this year on Feb., 4th) and finishes as mentioned above, that is the day before the Ash Wednesday (this year on Feb., 10th; the Ambrosian Rites make Lent starts the Sunday after, letting Carnival lasts 4 days more).
So, in the strict sense, Carnival lasts one week, one week before the long fasting from flesh and its pleasures: we should take advantage of it, then, commemorating Roman poet Horace's motto "Carpe Diem" (lit."seize the day"), by meeting up on the 5th from 11p.m. (the last Friday before the strict deprivation!) and on the 7th from 6p.m. @Juice Berry, via Torino 162, in the Capital of Carnival, the wonderful Venice! <3
ph. by GDLart
