@evan I used to live in Trinidad; you bet I celebrated #Carnival there. These days I just buy some sweets to enjoy before Lent begins. No, but...
@evan
Dear Evangelo,
Thank you from my heart for your generous donation. My mother was very happy when I told her about your kindness. Tomorrow I will buy her diapers because of you.
She is fasting these days, and she will pray for you every day during Ramadan, mentioning your name in her prayers.
May God bless and protect you always. 🤍
Wow, so interesting. I'm a yes; our family has pancakes for supper on Fat Tuesday, dresses up in Mardi Gras gear, and watches live feeds on YouTube for carnival parades around the world.
@evan I was born in Rio and had Carnival forced on me enough to hate it with all my soul.
There is a picture of me, 3yo, wearing a costume for Carnival and I look like the saddest child ever. I’m so grateful it isn’t a thing in Toronto at all and I can just live my life.
@evan I missed this poll but I'm a yes.
As a Brazilian, it is difficult to not to celebrate carnival... I used to scape from it before my children were born but now I have a lot of fun on the kids' carnival parades 😀
@evan Missed the poll, and forgot both "Feit-tirsdag" and "Fastelaven" this year. Never did the ash-wednesday thing, which is supposed to be lutefisk where I'm at.
I need to wordsmith this kind of poll. A lot of the responses said things like, no, but I have pancakes. That feels like an observance to me.
@evan you’re also eating pancakes on commemorations?
@evan I don’t celebrate Christmas but I have a tree … and eat Chinese cuisine.
@rickscully see, I would say that by getting a tree, you are celebrating the holiday. What am I missing?
@evan Maybe the differences are in terminology. Celebrate is not the same as ... participate or observe? I was raised Catholic but I wasn't even aware of pancakes as a Shrove Tuesday thing until I was in my late teens. I like the nostalgia associated with Christmas, but I haven't been Christian in over 40 years, so I wouldn't say I am celebrating Christmas. Maybe a person who has pancakes just has pancakes on Fat Tuesday because they always have, but they may also hate their childhood religion?
@rickscully So, I guess for me "celebrate" means "have fun", "do fun things". Like celebrating a wedding or a birthday. I guess if you consider "celebrate" to mean "a religious observance", then it doesn't really match. I am going to try using "observe" or maybe just "do anything for/on" to make it clearer.
@evan Ok, that helps. My view is that if I am not celebrating the birth of Jesus I am not celebrating Christmas. If I am not celebrating Jesus' resurrection then I am probably also not having pancakes because it was Shrove Tuesday. Thanks!
@virtuous_sloth you still have a couple of hours to make a pancake!
@evan We did have pancakes, and have done so in the past, but I hadn't thought of it as Mardi Gras even though I know it is Shrove Tuesday. I was thinking more about the parade side of it. We don't believe, so it is just an excuse for pancakes and bacon for dinner. ;-)
@virtuous_sloth so, eating pancakes doesn't feel like celebrating to you?
@evan No, it does not feel like celebrating. I'm not even aware of the story behind why Christians associate pancakes with the last day before Lent. I will have to look that up.
My understanding of the parades and perhaps excesses as both celebration but also some letting loose before the more solemn and sacrificial nature of Lent.