TODAY'S FLAVOURS
Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the last hurrah before the Catholic season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. It also has links to the Christmas season through the period known as Carnival.
Catholic Roots of Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras, literally "Fat Tuesday," has grown in popularity in recent years as a raucous, sometimes hedonistic event. But its roots lie in the Christian calendar, as the "last hurrah" before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. That's why the enormous party in New Orleans, for example, ends abruptly at midnight on Tuesday, with battalions of streetsweepers pushing the crowds out of the French Quarter towards home.
What is less known about Mardi Gras is its relation to the Christmas season, through the ordinary-time interlude known in many Catholic cultures as Carnival. (Ordinary time, in the Christian calendar, refers to the normal "ordering" of time outside of the Advent/Christmas or Lent/Easter seasons. There is a fine Scripture From Scratch article on that topic if you want to learn more.)
Carnival comes from the Latin words carne vale, meaning "farewell to the flesh." Like many Catholic holidays and seasonal celebrations, it likely has its roots in pre-Christian traditions based on the seasons. Some believe the festival represented the few days added to the lunar calendar to make it coincide with the solar calendar; since these days were outside the calendar, rules and customs were not obeyed. Others see it as a late-winter celebration designed to welcome the coming spring. As early as the middle of the second century, the Romans observed a Fast of 40 Days, which was preceded by a brief season of feasting, costumes and merrymaking.
How apt it is for those celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year on the 18th to the 20th Feb, just days before Lent (21st). There is only one advice during this time of reunion: eat, drink and be merry!
[Most part of the article taken from www.americancatholic.org]
TOPPINGS
A special Lenten fast
Give up harsh words: use generous ones.
Give up unhappiness: take up gratitude.
Give up anger: take up gentleness and patience.
Give up pessimism: take up hope and optimism.
Give up worrying: take up trust in God.
Give up complaining: value what you have.
Give up stress: take up prayer.
Give up judging others: discover Jesus within them.
Give up sorrow and bitterness: fill your heart with joy.
Give up selfishness: take up compassion for others.
Give up being unforgiving: learn reconciliation.
Give up words: fill yourself with silence, and listen to others.
- Anonymous, Latin America
Flicks for Lent
Chocolat (2000)
(Click here to see reviews)
EXTRA GOODIES
Highlights of our Jan retreat
COMING SOON...
Meeting Jesus...
Richard Tan Huay Beng
[Roy's dad (L5 coordinator)]
Monday (19 Feb 2007)
Wake: 8.00pm (3-D Chapel Road - next to Holy Family Church)
Tuesday (20 Feb 2007)
Funeral: 12.00pm (Holy Family Church)
Chinese New Year Mass Times
Chinese New Year's Eve (17 Feb 2007)
Mass time: 6.15am and 6.00pm.
There will be NO Novena Service.
Chinese New Year (18 Feb 2007)
Mass time: 7.15am, 9.15am, 11.15am
6.00pm (Mandarin/English bi-lingual mass)
Blessed oranges will be distributed at all masses.
Public Holidays (19 & 20 Feb 2007)
Mass time: 8.30am. There will be NO evening mass.
Ash Wednesday
Day of Fasting and Abstinence (21 Feb 2007)
Mass time: 6.15am, 6.15pm and 8.00pm
Blessing and distribution of ashes at all masses.
