Fastnacht

Otherwise known as Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras or Carnival. The day before Ash Wednesday when you eat lots of 'fat' to clean out the larder for Lent when you're supposed to fast. I haven't decided what to give up for Lent. It's hard to stick with it, though I suppose that's the point. I gave up cursing one year...that wasn't just hard, but darn near impossible! Chocolate, I suppose, but I might end up insane.

If you've ever gone to New Orleans for Mardi Gras you know there's all sorts of indulgence there during that week. I firmly believe, having survived Mardi Gras, that the reason people do fast on Ash Wednesday is because they're too hung over to bother otherwise. And no, I won't be posting pictures here.

Still, despite the media-played up extravagance of the term, in Binche, Belgium the Mardi Gras is the most important day of the year. At the Carnival of Binche, about 1000 Gilles (participants) dance throughout the city from in the morning until well past dark whilst traditional carnival songs play. In 2003, the Carnival of Binche was proclaimed one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.