In the Christian calendar, Lent, a reverent and disciplined observance of Easter, begins on Ash Wednesday.
In the Middle Ages the faithful were forbidden to eat meat during Lent.
So the day before Ash Wednesday became known as Fat Tuesday, when everyone would overindulge in a Mardi Gras of what was about to be forbidden.
In Church Latin, came vale literally means “farewell to meat.”
How did the word carnival come to mean a self-indulgent celebration?
