Today is Shrove Tuesday. Today, we know it in our secular calendar as Mardi Gras. On the church calendar, this is the last day of Epiphany, the season after Christmas. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, where we remember that we are dust, and to dust we shall return.
Tomorrow also signifies the beginning of Lent, the forty day season of fasting and repentance before the rejoicing of the Easter season. In my family, as in many others, it is tradition to observe Lent by either giving up something and/or adding something to your daily life.
This year, I’m giving up sugar, and will be running every day. Not only will this help me physically, but it will also help me to observe this holy season by denying something in order to commemorate the forty days during which Jesus fasted and resisted Satan in the wilderness.
Today is a day of joyfulness. I’ll be heading off to our church’s annual pancake supper tonight, after I complete a monstrosity of homework (not the most joyful thing, but still). I may or may not be eating a bit of sugar today, in anticipation of the next forty days.
Happy Tuesday, my friends! What are you looking forward to this week?